Adrian Nicholas Sherwin-White was born on 10 August 1911. His father, H. N. Sherwin-White, was a
solicitor employed by the
London County Council. From 1923 to 1930 he was educated at
Merchant Taylors' School, apart from one year in which ill health forced him to study independently at home. He won a scholarship to the School's "sister foundation"
St John's College,
Oxford, where he began the
Literae Humaniores course in 1930. His tutor in ancient history was
Hugh Last, whose interest in Roman administrative history influenced the direction of his student's later scholarship. Sherwin-White achieved
first-class honours in both sets of Oxford examinations, the preliminary
Honour Moderations and the more important
Finals which he sat in 1934. In 1936, he married Marie Leonora Downes. He was also selected ahead of older competitors to succeed to Last's fellowship at St John's College, despite not yet having a doctorate – this may have been on Last's recommendation. He helped to edit some of the
Admiralty's series of
geographical handbooks, acquiring detailed geographical knowledge that he displayed in subsequent scholarship including a 1944 article about the historical geography of
Algeria. Sherwin-White's Oxford career was not interrupted by his family's move in 1963 to a cottage near
Fyfield,
Oxfordshire. His daughter, Susan Sherwin-White, was an ancient historian (1945-2016), expert on the Greek islands and the
Seleucid Empire. ==Publications==