 In 1936 , Wheeler embarked on a visit to the Near East , sailing from <unk> to Port Said , where he visited the Old Kingdom tombs of <unk> . From there he went via Sinai to Palestine , Lebanon , and Syria . During this trip , he visited various archaeological projects , but was dismayed by the quality of their excavations ; in particular , he noted that the American @-@ run excavation at Tel <unk> was adopting standards that had been rejected in Britain twenty @-@ five years previously . He was away for six weeks , and upon his return to Europe discovered that his wife Tessa had died of a pulmonary <unk> after a minor operation on her toe . According to Tessa 's biographer , for Wheeler this discovery was " the peak of mental misery , and marked the end of his ability to feel a certain kind of love " . That winter , his father also died . By the summer of 1937 , he had embarked on a new romance , with a young woman named Mavis de <unk> Cole , who had first met Wheeler when visiting the Maidan Castle excavations with her then @-@ lover , the painter Augustus John . After she eventually agreed to his repeated requests for marriage , the two were <unk> early in 1939 in a ceremony held at Caxton Hall , with a reception at Shelley House . They proceeded on a honeymoon to the Middle East . 
