Lambton Ann K. S. 1912-2008 Persian historian

Ann Katharine Swynford Lambton (known as A.K.S. or Nancy) was born in 1912 and grew up in Newmarket. She studied at SOAS, London. Between 1939 and 1945, she was press attaché at the British Legation (later Embassy) in Tehran, for which war service she was made an OBE in 1942. She returned to SOAS as senior lecturer, then reader, in Persian, before being appointed professor in 1953. She continued to teach at SOAS until her retirement in 1979. Her knowledge of Iran was considered one of the most informed in the western world. After retirement she continued her research and writing. She died in 2008, aged 96.