   michael george francis ventris, obe (12 july 1922 &ndash; 6 september 1956) was an english linguist and architect who, along with john chadwick and alice kober, deciphered linear b, a previously unknown ancient script discovered at knossos by arthur evans. a prodigy in languages, ventris had pursued the decipherment as an avocation since his teen-age years. after creating a new field of study, ventris died in an automobile accident a few weeks before publication of his first definitive work, documents in mycenaean greek. ==biography== ===early life=== ventris was born into a traditional army family then coming to an end. his father, edward francis vereker ventris,unit histories reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the indian army;great britons: twentieth-century lives, harold oxbury, 1985 he might have gone further had he not contracted tuberculosis and retired. his grandfather, francis ventris, was a major-general who ended his career as commander of british forces in china. both men served in the middle and far east, the younger especially in india. during one of his stays in england, michael's future father married anna dorothea janasz (dora), the daughter of a wealthy immigrant landholder from poland. her photographs reveal a slender, dark-haired beauty. they had one child, michael. health was an important family consideration 
1922_births 1956_deaths English_architects English_classical_scholars English_people_of_Polish_descent English_philologists Hellenic_epigraphers People_educated_at_Stowe_School Road_accident_deaths_in_England Royal_Air_Force_personnel_of_World_War_II Scholars_of_Mycenaean_Greek