Raymond O. Faulkner

Who was Raymond O. Faulkner?

Dr Raymond Oliver Faulkner, FSA, was an English Egyptologist and philologist of the ancient Egyptian language.

He was born in Shoreham, Sussex, and was the son of bank clerk Frederick Arthur Faulkner and his wife Matilda Elizabeth Faulkner. In 1912 he took up a position in the British Civil Service, but his employment was interrupted by World War I, when he entered the armed forces. After a brief period of service, he was invalided out and rejoined the Civil Service in 1916.

Faulkner developed an interest in Egyptology, and in 1918 he took to studying Egyptian hieroglyphs in his spare time at University College London under the tutelage of Margaret Murray. In 1926 he became the full-time assistant to Dr Alan Gardiner, from whom he received philological training and encouragement to publish his works on hieroglyphic texts.

He was the editor of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology from 1946–59, and wrote many books, articles, and reviews. In 1950 he was admitted as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

In 1951 Faulkner became an assistant in language teaching at University College London, progressing to become a lecturer in Egyptian language – a post he held from 1954 to 1967.