John Kenneth Sinclair St Joseph, CBE, FBA, FSA, FSA Scot, FGS (13 November 1912 – 11 March 1994) was an English archaeologist, geologist and Royal Air Force (RAF) veteran who pioneered the use of aerial photography as a method of archaeological research in Britain and Ireland.

During the Second World War he served as an intelligence analyst with the RAF[1] looking at photographs of bombing operations to judge their effectiveness.

As a school boy, St Joseph had been interested in Roman Britain and, in the 1930s, he was able to exploit a family connection to take part in an excavation at Hadrian's Wall where he met O G S Crawford.

[3] St Joseph's subsequent war time experience convinced him that aerial photography had a potentially vital role in discovering and analyzing archaeological sites.

[1] Some of the results of these photographic surveys were published in a series of books, the first of which - Monastic sites from the air - included text annotating the photos from David Knowles, Professor of Medieval History, who had been an influential supporter of St Joseph's appointment.

[11] In the 1964 Queen's Birthday Honours, St Joseph was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to archaeology.

[12] In the 1979 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his work as Professor of Aerial Photographic Studies at the University of Cambridge.