| Admin/Biog History | David Wallace was a classics scholar, with a particular interest in Greek archaeology. Educated at Eton and Balliol, he obtained a first class degree in Greats. He spent two years as a Student of the British School at Athens, devoting himself to the study of Byzantine art.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Wallace served for two years as Press Attache to the British Legation at Athens, and was evacuated when Greece was invaded in 1941. In July 1943 he returned to Greece as liaison officer with the Greek guerilla forces in Epirus. In August 1944 he took part in an assault by the 3/4Oth Evzone Regiment, during which he was hit and killed immediately by machine-gun fire.
Wallace met Nicolson at Oxford, where the two became good friends. They socialised in the same group forming lasting friendships with Jeremy Hutchinson, Isaiah Berlin, Francis Graham-Harrison and many other intellectual forces of the day. They travelled abroad together several times and, in 1937 considered buying a house together. Journals in the archive reveal that they continued to meet sporadically until Wallace's death in 1944.
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| Description | Includes correspondence of a personal nature concerning plans to meet and travel together; a stay at the British School of Archaeology in Rome; plans for a book on Greek castles and mutual friends including, in particular, Isaiah Berlin; Jeremy Hutchinson; Laura & Cressida Bonham-Carter; Jo Grimond; Francis Graham-Harrison and Stuart Hampshire. The majority of the correspondence in the archive dates from the 1930s and is best read alongside the journals of this period,
Of particular note:
-letter, dated 15 August 1937, concerning a stay at Cecilia Roberts house in Cumberland with Jo Grimond, Laura and Cressida Bonham-Carter ; Greek castles; Pearl Argyll and the Sadler's Wells ballet
-letter, dated 10 October 1937, comparing a political life against an academic life, and Oxford life against London life
-letter, dated 29 December 1937, lamenting the absence of letters from Nicolson; discussing mutual friends including Jeremy Hutchinson and Francis Graham-Harrison
-letter, sent 15 April & 13 June 1938 concerning a stay at the British School of Archaeology in Rome; and a scandal about the Elgin Marbles
-letter, sent 27 September 1938, concerning the impending outbreak of war
-letter, dated 14 February [1939], concerning a visit to Italy [honeymoon?] and his recent marriage to Prudence Magor |