HISTORIAN John Ashdown Hill said he was surprised, but pleased to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his work in finding and identifying the remains of Richard III.
It was medieval expert Dr Ashdown-Hill’s book, The Last Days of Richard III, which sparked the search for the monarch’s body beneath a council car park in Leicester.
The battle-scarred skeleton was subsequently found and in February 2013, it was confirmed to be that of Richard III.
The vital evidence establishing his identity was due to painstaking research by Dr Ashdown Hill, who traced the bloodline of Richard’s eldest sister, Anne of York, toadirect living descendant.
Dr Ashdown-Hill, 66, who lives in Manningtree and has been made an MBE, was honoured for “services to the exhumation and identification of Richard III”.
He said: “It is great. I had not expected it at all. I don’t know who has put me up for it.”
Dr Ashdown-Hill is now working on other projects.
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