Kenneth Shenton writes:

EMERGING as one of the world’s most distinguished scholars of late antiquity and Byzantium, Dame Averil Cameron, who died on 7 April, aged 86, also made a significant contribution to our understanding of early Christian historical writing. Indeed, from her youthful days as a Sunday-school pianist and occasional organist, through to her appointment as the first female Warden of Keble College, Oxford, the Church played an important part in her long and illustrious career.

In the wake of the sacking of Dr Martin Neary as organist of Westminster Abbey, in 2001 she led — while chairing (1999-2005) the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England — a review of the future governance of the Royal Peculiars, namely Westminster Abbey, St George’s Chapel, Windsor and the Chapels Royal of St James’s Palace, Hampton Court, and the Tower of London.

Born on 8 February 1940, in the Staffordshire market town of Leek, Averil Millicent Sutton was the only child of paper mill worker, Tom Sutton and his wife Millicent (née Drew). Educated at Westwood Hall Girls’ High School, where she became Head Girl besides excelling in the classroom, she also made her mark as a musician. Having successfully studied Greek during her lunch hour each day, in 1958 she won a Hughes Exhibition to read ancient history and philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford. Four years later, having graduated, she married a fellow Greats graduate, Alan Cameron. The couple would have two children before divorcing in 1980. They began their married life in Glasgow, where he was appointed to a lectureship in Latin. While there, receiving a graduate scholarship, she made a start on her doctoral thesis.

In 1964, they moved to the capital when her husband was appointed to Bedford College in the University of London. Twelve months later, she became an Assistant Lecturer and then Lecturer at King’s College, where she was appointed a Reader in 1970. From 1978 until 1989, she served as Professor of Ancient History. Her outstanding scholastic credentials also put her in demand further afield: as Visiting Professor at Columbia University 1967-68; at the Collège de France in 1987; the University of California at Berkeley 1985-86; Princeton 1977-78; and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies in 1981. From 1990 until 1992, with a Wolfson Fellowship from the British Academy, she was able to visit and excavate historic sites in Israel and Cyprus. Founder of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, she also chaired the British National Byzantine Symposia.

In 1994, Cameron was elected to succeed Dr George Richardson as the 11th Warden of Keble, one of the first three women heads of houses, elected for former men’s colleges that year. Finding only one woman Fellow in the college, she sought to increase their number. As Keble was patron of 65 Church of England livings, she was soon active in the appointment of incumbents.

In tandem with her commitment to academic rigour, she also had a particularly inclusive vision for the college’s future. She was a passionate supporter of the arts, an performance spaces were enhanced, rooms were refurbished, finances were improved, and the conference trade was put on a much more professional footing. Alongside the development of a Centre for Advanced Studies, the acquisition of the Acland Hospital site near by provided increased provision for graduates. One project very close to her heart came to fruition in 2011, a year after her retirement: the opening of the newly built Kenneth Tickell organ in the chapel.

Throughout her career, she also proved to be a fine writer, providing a wealth of articles and critiques for a wide range of specialist periodicals and journals, including the Classical Quarterly and The Journal of Hellenic Studies. Writings on a more expansive canvas included The Byzantines, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, Byzantine Christianity, and Byzantine Matters. As Editor of the Journal of Roman Studies, she published editions of previously unreleased Byzantine texts.

During the 1990s, she co-edited and revised three volumes (12-14) of The Cambridge Ancient History: The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337; The Late Empire AD 337-425; and Late Antiquity and Successors AD 425-600. In 2008, with Ian Archer, she co-edited Keble Past and Present. Later works include Transitions and A History of Byzantine Christianity, published by SPCK (2017).

After retiring from Keble, between 2010 and 2023 she chaired a new organisation, the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. Its aim was to raise funds to extend and consolidate the coverage of Byzantine studies in the university. President of the Ecclesiastical History Society 2005-06, she also chaired the directors of the Oxford Patristics Conference. Appointed CBE in 1999, she became DBE in 2006.