Professor Reginald Byron (20 August 1944 – 8 August 2017)

Reg Byron was born in America and settled in Britain after completing his PhD in Anthropology at UCL in 1974. After establishing his career in the Anthropology Department at Queen’s University, Belfast (1973-1991) he was appointed Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Wales Swansea (1991-2006). He was a regular panel organiser and presenter at EASA conferences. He published widely on his varied research in Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, and North America, including studies of maritime communities (Sea Change: A Shetland Society 1970-79, ISER Books,1986), migration (Irish America, Oxford University Press, 1999), and latterly European kinship and marriage. Reg always took a historical approach and used materials in museums and archives in his research. After retirement he volunteered at Tangmere Military Aviation Museum, edited the biannual Tangmere Logbook, and co-wrote a history of Tangmere. It is fitting that his last paper, presented posthumously at Chichester University, concerned Bogart Rogers, an American airman who flew from Tangmere in the first World War, and returned to California to become a script writer and inventor of the photo finish. Reg was a man of principle who will be be remembered for his contribution to the Anthropology of Marginal Regions and also for his kindness and fairness as a colleague and as a friend.
(Felicia Hughes-Freeland)