David Talbot Rice

David Talbot Rice (11 July 1903 in Rugby – 12 March 1972 in Cheltenham) was an English archaeologist and art historian. He has been described variously as a "gentleman academic" and an "amateur" art historian, though such remarks are not borne out by his many achievements and a lasting legacy of scholarship in his field of study. Early life Talbot Rice's name is sometimes written as Talbot-Rice. His parents were Charles Henry Talbot-Rice (1862–1931) and Cecily Mary Talbot-Rice (née Lloyd, 1865–1940). Born in Rugby and brought up in Gloucestershire, Talbot Rice was educated at Eton prior to reading archaeology and anthropology at Christ Church, Oxford. At Oxford his circle of friends included Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton as well as his future wife (Elena) Tamara Abelson (1904–1993) whom he was to marry in 1927. This group allegedly formed the original for Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Elena was a Russian émigré, born in St. Petersburg and an art historian, writing on Byzantine and Central Asian art and other subjects as Tamara Talbot Rice. They had three children, two daughters and a son. Career