My first message to list this year has to be on a sad note, the below message
was forwarded via English Heritage, will be sad news to the members of the
British Archaeo-materials fraternity.
As one of the people responsible for my coming into the field - I will
miss him, and his habit of asking seemingly simple questions, which on
investigation proved to be rather complex. I will even miss his unannounced
arrival in the office with the dreaded plastic bag containing his latest
problem sample and the inevitable question what is this? Then out would come
some lump of debris from any period and associated with any sort of industrial
process.
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>>> John Fidler 01/10 12:26 pm >>>
Could you all pass on this message to those who knew Leo Biek?
I am sorry to report he passed away just after his 80th birthday recently. He
was the first manager of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory.
Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.
Leo was a familiar site in the foyer of Savile Row these last few years -
appearing like a "bag man" in bedraggled clothing and carrying reams of paper
in supermarket plastic hold-alls - waiting to meet much younger colleagues
willing to share new scientific discoveries in his favourite fields of glass,
metals and ceramics in archaeological finds (and more recently in building
conservation).
His personal history was an epic voyage. Over a discussion of his language
skills last year, with eyes filling as he spoke, he recounted his hard
childhood life in the Baltic states in the interwar years - being sent to an
academy where all things were taught in hated German (though a boon to his
scientific interests throughout his career). His persecuted family moved to
Germany and were persecuted more - thence through war torn Europe to the UK.
The early years of the AM Lab were spent working for the Superintending
Architect on building conservation issues - paint durability, timber decay and
stone cleaning for example.
In the first of many organisational changes, the Lab moved to the
archaeological side of the house, reporting to the Chief Inspector, and the
work refocused on the study of finds and their conservation.
In the 1980's Leo's interests had moved towards 3 dimensional recording and
encouraging interest amongst many of us in stereo photography.
After is "retirement", he consulted for Patricia Brock & Assocs, architects in
Camden and wrote profusely in the newsletter of the
Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association - where he was deeply loved
for his help in interpreting difficult scientific concepts on stone decay and
conservation etc for hard-pressed (chemically illiterate) practitioners.
Partly by way of 'work therapy' in his retirement, and to utilise his
outstanding scientific curiosity and experience, BCRT 'commissioned' Leo
occasionally to supply technical and scientific reviews and advice as part of
its R&D programme. Biek would not accept any payment and preferred to be
offered a simple sandwich lunch [1 boiled egg; 2 slices of unbuttered brown
bread; 1 small bottle of Ribena and a straw] over which we exchanged technical
gossip and recipes - most recently on current and past sources of cupras, used
in the stone and stucco world.
Yet another of our unsung (and undecorated) pioneering predecessors has gone.
Can we at English Heritage not organise a legacy programme - so that we can
formally recognise and honour our former colleagues' achievements before they
all disappear? Our future is as nothing without our past.
John Fidler
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Chris Salter
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JXA-8800 Superprobe, Electron Microscopy Facility
Department of Materials,
Begbroke Business and Science Park,
Sandy Lane,
Yarnton,
Oxford OX5 1PF,
Tel. Office 01865 283722
Probe 01865 283741
Fax. 01865 848790
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