Rescue is pleased to announce the creation of The John Wells Award, to recognise outstanding contributions to heritage protection.
John Wells was a particle physicist by profession. He was recognised as a gifted scholar at a young age and as a result was awarded a scholarship to Oxford after his first year studying at Hertford College. He followed this with a doctorate in particle physics at Wolfson College where he continued to teach. He also worked at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
He suffered from a significant disability, the result of an unusual reaction to a spinal injection he received as part of treatment on damaged discs following a fall in his 20s. Complications and further unsuccessful treatment left him in severe pain and with limited mobility. Despite this and the demands of his academic career he became an active supporter of RESCUE, volunteering his time to help us and determinably attending many of our AGMs in the 2010s, some a long distance from his home in Oxford. In 2017 he used his influence to afford us the opportunity to hold that year’s meeting at the Ashmolean Museum.
A well read and clever man he was an enormous help proof-reading our editions of Rescue News and other documents and made many generous donations to our funds. He was very appreciative of the work of Rescue, often communicating with us how very important he considered our work, but he was also sympathetic to the time constraints imposed on us and other campaigners as volunteers. He remained an active supporter of RESCUE until his sad death in December 2021, but his support continued subsequently with a very generous legacy bequeathed to us in his estate.
We now wish to celebrate his generosity by using his legacy to support and publicise contributions to heritage protection, in such a way to not only help RESCUE to grow and support archaeology and archaeologists into the future, but also to recognise those other organisations that are doing similar and often unheralded work. We believe strongly that his bequest would be best served in actively supporting organisations and individuals who, like John himself, take selfless initiative in protecting our heritage resources.
To that end RESCUE is pleased to now create The John Wells Award, to celebrate John’s campaigning legacy and create a lasting recognition of his support for archaeology and heritage. The Award will be presented to those organisations or individuals that have demonstrated exceptional endeavours in the sphere of heritage protection, many of whom do so in the face of stiff opposition. The intention is that the Award will provide a much needed boost to campaigners, both financially and in morale.
The award will be presented at the discretion of the RESCUE Council – there will be no application process and the award is not a grant fund, although we are happy to receive nominations for possible worthy recipients from RESCUE Members. It will not to be presented annually or on any other set timetable. Potential recipients will be recommended by the RESCUE Council on an intermittent basis in recognition of an achievement of an outstanding contribution to historic environment protection, in the hope that the Award will support them to continue their work.
To be eligible to receive The John Wells Award, potential recipients should:
- Be a voluntary or charitable organisation, or an unpaid individual working to protect the historic environment
- Have recorded a notable or outstanding achievement in the field of heritage protection or be working towards such an aim with notable milestones having been reached
- Not be in receipt of project grant-funding, or government or local government support to achieve their aims
The Award will be in the form of a cash sum (up to £500) and an accompanying Certificate. Recipients will also be entitled to note that they are a recipient of the RESCUE John Wells Award on their official communications. All Award recipients will be recorded on the RESCUE Website.
(Image: Pictures from the family)
