Claude Blair

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claude Blair , CVO , OBE (born November 30, 1922 in Manchester , † February 21, 2010 in Epsom ) was a British historian specializing in weapons and armor. He was a longtime curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Life

Blair's family had Scottish roots. He was born in 1922 to a Manchester cotton merchant and amateur historian and his wife in Chorlton-cum-Hardy , a borough of Manchester. His father piqued his interest in history; Blair began collecting ancient weapons at a young age. He attended William Hulme's Grammar School in his hometown and was shaped by the northwestern English regions of Lancashire (southern part) and Cheshire .

In 1942 he was drafted into the British Army , where he trained as an officer. Despite an accident-related injury in Northern Ireland, he made it to the captain of the Royal Artillery . Most recently, he tried handguns, but retired in 1946.

Blair studied after World War II at the University of Manchester , which had a good reputation in English medieval history; there he obtained a BA in 1950 and later an MA in 1963. His thesis, The Emperor Maximilian I's Gift of Armor to King Henry VIII and the Silvered and Engraved Armor at the Tower of London , appeared in the journal Archaeologia . As an undergraduate, he published in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society .

In 1951 he became assistant to Sir James Mann , Master of the Armories, at the Royal Armories in the Tower of London . After differences of opinion with Mann, he moved to the Department of Metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London in 1956 - appointed by Director Trenchard Cox - as Assistant Keeper, 1966 Deputy Keeper and 1972 Keeper of Metalwork . His first book, European Armor, circa 1066 to circa 1700 (1958), became a standard work . In 1982 he retired. In the 1980s, he resisted the restructuring of the museum and was one of the protagonists of the Save the V&A initiative .

In 1946 he became a member of the Monumental Brass Society . From 1979 to 1998 he was a member of the Fabric Advisory Panel of Westminster Abbey and from 1992 to 1997 the Churches Conservation Trust . In 1979 he co-founded and then president of the Church Monuments Society . He was also a member of the Council for the Care of Churches of the Church of England . Blair was an early member of the Arms and Armor Society and edited the Journal of the Arms and Armor Society from 1953 to 1977 . From 1990 to 1993 he was Vice President of the Society of Antiquaries of London . He was also a member a. a. the Medieval Dress and Textile Society and the Meyrick Society .

In 1988 he received the Medal of Distinction from the Arms and Armor Society. In 1994 he was honored with the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1998 he received the Gold Medal of the Society of Antiquaries, in which he was elected as a Fellow in 1956. In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Hon. LittD) from the University of Manchester. In 2005 he became Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO).

Blair was married to the daughter of a Church of England clergyman from 1952 ; his son John Blair (* 1955) became Professor of Medieval History and Archeology at Oxford. Most recently living in Ashtead , Surrey , he died in 2010 at Epsom Hospital .

Fonts (selection)

  • European Armor, circa 1066 to circa 1700 (1958; 2nd edition 1972)
  • European and American Arms (1962)
  • Pistols of the World (1968)
  • Arms, Armor, and Base-Metalwork (1974)
  • Pollard's History of Firearms (ed., 1983)
  • Crown Jewels (ed., 2 vol., 1998)
  • Louis Marcy (with Marian Campbell , 2008)

literature

Web links

Obituaries:

personal data
SURNAME Blair, Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 2010
Place of death Epsom