Owen Dicker (2nd April 1934 – 7th February 2026) has died after a long illness.
At one of our Open Days at Upper Row Farm, about 2002, we had a visitor who tried the resistance meter in our geophysics display, liked it, came back for more … and came back for more … and came back for more. That was Owen.
He got involved with the excavations during the season, but then was also happy to work in the geophysics team all through the winter. Within a season or two, he had become ‘The Fastest Resi-surveyor in the West’ as well as a regular student supervisor during the training digs, a very useful handyman and an expert on local mediaeval pottery.
He was a member of the team when BACAS travelled to Foula in 2006, a remote island off the Atlantic coast of Shetland, to explore its monuments by geophysics, returning the following year to help dig the newly discovered stone circle.
In 2008, Owen was the second ever winner of the Clive Peacock Memorial Award. This award is made to the member who is considered to have made the most important contribution to the Society during the previous year. Owen received it for his services to the Society not just in geophysics and excavation but for all the hard work he put into sourcing equipment, materials, construction and logistics.
He worked tirelessly during BACAS’s time at Upper Row Farm and through the excavations at St Algars and Peart. He was a Society committee member for several years and eventually our Director of Operations. A slight stroke in 2011 started to limit his activities within the Society, although he was able to join in our geophysics explorations on the Isle of Man in 2017. He worked instead on the papers of the archaeologist Dom Ethelbert Horne at Downside Abbey. He was always interested to know what we were doing and until quite recently attended lectures and visited sites especially the local dig at Marston Mill.
Owen and Margaret met doing geophysics on site in about 2005 and their partnership lasted to the end. He died peacefully at his home in Warminster, surrounded by his family. He leaves two sons and a daughter, a grandson and two great-grandchildren.
All those who worked with him will remember him with great fondness and admiration.
Trowel in peace, Owen.
Owen’s funeral will be at 12 o’clock on Tuesday 10th March at West Wilts Crematorium, Semington. Mourners will be invited afterwards to his family home in Warminster.