Bryan Hugh St. J O’Neill was born in 1905 in London. He was educated at Merchant Taylor’s School and later received his MA at St. John’s College in Oxford. He married a fellow archaeologist, Helen Donovan (noted for her work in Gloucester) in 1939.
In 1930, he was appointed to the Office of Works as an Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments and was later assigned to Wales. A positioned he occupied until 1945. By then he was made Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for England and Wales. His work as the Wales A.M. Inspector, however was cut short with the declaration of war in 1939. He was assigned to take charge in London of the archaeological consequences of War damage and the organisation of rescue excavations. Despite 15 years working in Wales, he had no permanent residence there and his office remained in London.
As Chief Inspector he was involved with the drafting of the 1953 Historic Buildings Act and setting up Historic Building Councils. He was responsible for advising on the conservation and presentation of Britain’s ancient monuments which were in the guardianship of the State. He deemed which of those were worthy of preservation.
He was a committee member of numerous Archaeology societies but in 1931, he joined the Cambrian Archaeological Association and served on its General Committee . He published extensively and of his 200 listed publications, one third was on Welsh archaeology, and appeared mainly in Archaeologia Cambrensis , The Montgomeryshire Collections and publications of H.M.S.O.
O’Neill also had a strong interest in coins starting back in his youth and was part of the Royal Numismatic Society .
Further information on his wartime archaeological work can be found in Simon Thurley’s ‘“Men from the Ministry: How Britain Saved Its Heritage” published in 2013.
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