Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase (31 August 1898 – 14 April 1974) was a British

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

, university teacher, and

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

Early life and education

Thomas Boase was born in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, to Charles Millet Boase (d. 1921), operator of a bleaching mill at Claverhouse, outside Dundee, of which the Boase family were part-owners, and his wife Anne. Boase was educated at a day preparatory school and then at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

(1912–17).

Oxford

He won a scholarship to Oxford for an essay on Lorenzo de' Medici. Boase studied

Modern History The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, from 1919 to 1921. At Oxford he studied under the historian Francis Fortescue Urquhart (1868–1934). Boase was a Fellow and Tutor at

Hertford College Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...

from 1922 to 1937.

Involvement in World War I and II

World War I

He fought on the Western Front during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (1917–19) and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he worked in the

Government Code and Cypher School The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was a British signals intelligence agency set up in 1919. During the First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as R ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

, followed by the RAF in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, from 1939 to 1941. He was then in charge of

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

activities in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, also based in Cairo, from 1943 to 1945.

Career

Courtauld Institute of Art

From 1937 to 1947, Boase was Director of the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. While at the Courtauld he contributed photographs that are now held in the Conway Library of art and architecture. During this period, he was also Professor of

History of Art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetics ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

Later life

From 1947 to 1968, Boase was

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of Magdalen College. In 1948, he contributed to the Samuel Courtauld Memorial Exhibition at Tate Britain. He was a Trustee of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

(1947–53) and the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(1950–69). Boase was involved in a 'scandal' while Chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery in 1952. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1958 to 1960. Boase became a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1961. He was

Slade Professor of Fine Art The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collect ...

at Oxford for 1963–64. In 1967, he was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He was also a member of the Advisory Council of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

(1947–70).

Death

His obituary for The British Academy was written by J.J.G.Alexander, another Conway Library photographer.

Partial Bibliography

*''Boniface VIII'', Series: Makers of the Middle Ages, Constable, 1933. *''St. Francis of Assisi'', Series: Great Lives (74), Duckworth, 1936. *''English Romanesque Illuminations'', Oxford University Press, 1951. *''The Oxford History of English Art : Vol III. English Art, 1100–1216'', Oxford University Press, 1953. *''English Illumination of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries'', Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1954. *''The York Psalter in the Library of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow'', Faber & Faber Ltd, 1962. *'' Macklin and Bowyer'', Warburg Institute, 1963. *''Castles and Churches of the Crusading Kingdom'', Oxford University Press, 1967. *''St Francis of Assisi'', Thames & Hudson, 1968. *''Kingdoms and Strongholds of the Crusaders'', Thames and Hudson, 1971. *''Death in the Middle Ages: Mortality, Judgment and Remembrance'', Thames and Hudson, 1972. *''Nebuchadnezzar: 34 paintings and 18 drawings'', (with Arthur Boyd), Thames and Hudson, 1972.

References

External links

BOASE, Thomas Sherrer Ross (1898–1974)
archive,

. (Includes a biography.)
Books by Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase
from

Alibris Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books, and other media through an online network of independent booksellers. History Martin Manley founded Alibris in 1997 with the team behind early ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross 1898 births 1974 deaths People educated at Rugby School British art historians Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford Directors of the Courtauld Institute of Art Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Presidents of Magdalen College, Oxford Vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Trustees of the British Museum People associated with the National Gallery, London People associated with the Victoria and Albert Museum Bletchley Park people British Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Military Cross Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford) People from Dundee Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Members of the American Philosophical Society Historians of the University of Oxford