Valerie Fenwick (née Foulkes, LHS 1954)
Valerie Fenwick, a distinguished archaeologist and maritime historian, died peacefully at home in early 2025, at the age of 88.
Born in 1936, Valerie experienced wartime evacuation to Devon during the Blitz and developed a lifelong love of the outdoors and history. She joined Loughborough High School in the late 1940s, where she thrived academically. She credited Miss Andrews, who taught her Greek (“plunged straight into the Anabasis and assumed I would not drown!”), and Miss Kenworthy, whose “extraordinary perception” enabled her to excel in Latin,inspiring her to read Classics at Cambridge. Valerie believed she was the first LHS pupil to achieve this goal. She also fondly remembered Miss Roberts for Art, and Miss Thomas for Ancient History, whose Oxbridge interview advice was simply “have a clean handkerchief.”
Valerie often spoke with gratitude for the excellent teaching she received at LHS, and she remained close friends until the end of their lives with two of her former teachers, Esme and Rosemary.
After graduating from Cambridge, Valerie joined the British Museum as a conservator, where her ability to read Latin and Ancient Greek inscriptions proved invaluable. At just 25, she was sent to Jerusalem to preserve and mount the Dead Sea Scrolls. She went on to become Deputy Director of the Sutton Hoo excavations in the 1960s, work which informed her later research and publications.
Her expertise in maritime archaeology saw her co-found the Nautical Archaeology Society, play a key role in securing the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, and help establish the Maritime Archaeology Trust. She led excavations such as the Anglo-Saxon Graveney Boat and her long-running dig at Burrow Hill, Suffolk, pioneering community archaeology and innovative techniques. Valerie’s research and advocacy were recognised internationally, and she continued publishing thought-provoking work into her final year.
In later life, she wrote Untold Tales of the Suffolk Sandlings and made field trips as far afield as Goa, the Orinoco Delta,and Malta, recording endangered boatbuilding traditions. She was delighted shortly before her death to see the Maritime Archaeology Trust secure a site for a new museum and international learning centre on the Isle of Wight.
Valerie was inspiring to so many people and is remembered by her family, friends, and colleagues as an enquiring mind, a generous collaborator, and a spirited presence. She remained connected to Loughborough High School, treasuring the friendships she had made there and the teachers who taught her, and taking pride in her name on the school’s Honours Board for winning a State Scholarship.
