PHILIP DAVIES OBE, MA (Cantab), Dip TP, MRTPI, IHBC, FRHist.S, FRAS, FSA was educated at Tollington School, Muswell Hill and Queens’ College, Cambridge.

He is the principal of his own international heritage consultancy, Philip Davies (Heritage and Planning) Ltd, and the best-selling author of thirteen critically-acclaimed books on the heritage of London, India, Burma and the British Empire and Commonwealth. 

 A renowned scholar, a former senior Director of English Heritage, and one of the UK’s leading heritage experts, he has been in the forefront of managing change to some of Britain’s most important historic buildings and places. He is able to broker creative solutions to complex conservation problems, and write national and local guidance on key aspects of heritage conservation. 

An authority on Britain’s global heritage, internationally he has provided specialist advice on the conservation-led regeneration of many places including India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Chile, Brazil,  Antigua, Barbados, Guyana and St. Helena.

He is the founder and CEO of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum and a Trustee of various heritage trusts in the UK and overseas.  He established the £12.26 million Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Commonwealth Heritage Skills Training Programme, the largest ever heritage programme in the history of the Commonwealth training young people from deprived backgrounds in heritage skills to build capacity in disadvantaged communities worldwide.

A tireless champion of heritage conservation, he has travelled to over 120 countries from Asia to the Antarctic and from Australia to the Americas researching and documenting Britain’s overseas heritage.

He was appointed OBE for services to UK and Commonwealth heritage in the Diplomatic section of the 2024 New Year’s Honours List.