Emeritus Professor John Hunter, renowned expert in forensic archaeology and the archaeology of the Anglo-Saxons and of the Scottish Islands, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to scholarship.
Professor John Hunter comments: ‘I'm delighted and honoured - particularly with the recognition of 'scholarship'. It's a timely reflection of what universities are all about - something often forgotten amid debates about student numbers, fee levels and income. Scholarship is undertaken by each of my university colleagues, and this honour is something I share with all of them.’
John Hunter has spent much of his research career in Scotland in the Northern and Western Isles, including survey in Scapa Flow, Fair Isle and Canna, with major excavations at the Brough of Birsay, Orkney, the multi-period site of Pool, Sanday, and an Iron Age promontory fort on Fair Isle, Shetland. Other professional interests include forensic archaeology which involves operational support and presentational work for UK police forces. He is a lead assessor for the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners, a Director of the Centre for International Forensic Assistance, and has worked widely on homicides in the UK, as well as in the Falklands, the Balkans and Iraq. He is a former Secretary of RESCUE, Vice-Chair of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, both a Diocese and Cathedral Archaeologist, and was Head of the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology from 1997 - 2002. He was appointed a Royal Commissioner of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in 2004.
Who’s Who cites his recreational interests as walking the dog, watching football, and rowing which he still maintains at competition level.