B. H. St. John O’Neill dating history

Details

Bryan Hugh St. John O’Neill (7 August 1905 – 24 October 1954), was Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments in the Ministry of Works. In 1939 he married Helen Donovan of Bourton-on-the-Water, daughter of Charles Donovan MD, who was noted for her work on Gloucestershire archaeology. As an Inspector of Ancient Monuments he wrote or commissioned authoritative guide books to ancient monuments of all periods. He specialised in medieval castles. One of the guide books he wrote was on Dartmouth Castle, where the ‘Guntower’ building of 1481 and 1495 is the earliest surviving English coastal fortress specifically built to carry guns. This gave him a great interest in the development of early artillery fortification, in which he became a leading expert. His book Castles and Cannon; A study of Early Artillery Fortifications in England, has become a standard work. This was published in 1960, six years after his premature death at the age of 49. He also wrote on the coastal castles of the Gold Coast as well as studying the defences of Tangiers and Rhodes.