 In Birley's obituary, former Durham PhD student and Emeritus Yates Professor of Greek and Roman Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, John Wilkes wrote in "The Independent" that "Eric Birley dominated the study of the Roman army, of Hadrian's Wall and Roman frontiers in general for much of his 40 years as a teacher at Durham University, interrupted only by six years of war service, when he was engaged in the study of the German army for Military Intelligence.