Obituary

OBITUARY W. S. PENN, B.Sc., A.I.R.I. Born in Wolverhampton, Mr. W. S. Penn received his early education at the King Gem·ge V Grammar School and the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College and later at the Woolwich Polytechnic, receiving an external B.Sc. degree from London University in 1942. He took up a career in the technology of rubber and thermoplastics and was the author of several books on these subjects, besides contributing widely to technical and scientific journals. More recently, he left the industrial field in favour of educational work and, at the time of his death, was a lecturer in the Chemistry Department at the Borough Polytechnic. Always deeply attracted by the law, history and archroology of the Roman period, Mr. Penn found a practical outlet to supplement his work when he settled in the Gravesend area. Joining the Gravesend Historical Society in 1950, he organized a group to excavate the Romano-British site at Springhead with which he became completely identified and which absorbed practically the whole of his leisure. Even when his work took him away from the Gravesend area,. he maintained his close contact with the site and continued the onerous tasks of organizing and reporting the work in Archceologia Oantiana. Mr. Penn served as President of the Gravesend Historical Society in 1953 and again in 1968, and was a member of the Kent Archmological Society since 1952 and its Excavation Committee. Other bodies which received his support were Group llA of the Council for British Archa>ology and the Kent Archroological Research Gronps' Coun<'il of which he was a founder member. He will long be remembered for his unremit.t.ing efforts in t,he service of archreology in Kent. 8.R.H. 281'1