Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962

Variant names
Dates:
Birth 1867-07-16
Death 1962-05-01
Britons,
English,

Biographical notes:

English museum director, art historian and collector.

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge to Hugh W. Davies, 1911 Jan. 05. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899880

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Hammersmith, to Mackenzie Bell, 1896 Nov. 3. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899382

From the description of Autograph letter signed (retained copy) : Cambridge, to Lord Henry Bentinck, 1909 Feb. 17. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899388

From the description of Autograph letter signed : [n.p.], to Katherine Adams, 1931 June 13. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899376

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Kew Gardens Rd., Kew, Richmond, to Archibald Wavell, 1944 Apr. 19. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899899

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Kew, to R. Cobden-Sanderson, 1940 Apr. 4. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899391

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Clifford Inn [London], to W.R. Lethaby, 1901 July 19. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899888

From the description of Autograph letters and documents signed (8) : [London] etc., to Charles Fairfax Murray, 1896 Dec. 16-1915 Oct. 1. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899890

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Cambridge, to Miss Greene, 1919 Nov. 3. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899882

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Kew, Richmond, Surrey, to "My Dear Irvine", 1949 Apr. 18. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899883

Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell was born on July 16, 1867. He married Florence Kate Kingsford (d. 1949) in 1907, and had two daughters and one son. From 1889-1892, he worked as a coal merchant before going to work as a secretary to William Morris and the Kelmscott Press 1892-1898. At the age of 70, Cockerell retired after being the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for 30 years (1908-1937). He was the literary executor of William Morris, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, and Thomas Hardy. He was knighted on 1934 by the King of England. For the last 10 years of his life, he was confined to his bed with heart problems. He died on May 1, 1962.

From the description of Papers of Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, 1949-1981. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122570810

Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

From the description of Autograph letters signed (2) : [London], to F.B. Adams Jr., 1953 Dec. 28-1954 Sept. 28. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270899371

English museum director and book collector.

From the description of Autograph letter signed : London, to A.J. Wyatt, 1894 Sept. 24. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 696395694

Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (1867-1962) was an English book collector and an authority on illuminated manuscripts. Active in literary circles, he was private secretary to William Morris (thereby becoming a major collector of Kelmscott Press books) and was Thomas Hardy's executor. For thirty years (1908-1937) he was Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

From the guide to the Sydney Carlyle Cockerell Letters, 1946-1958, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)

English author and academic.

From the description of Autograph letters signed (19), and autograph postcards (5) : Cranleigh, Windsor, Cambridge, Evesham, Skipton, Richmond, to Siegfried Sassoon, 1915-1951. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270870549

Cockerell was an English bibliophile.

From the description of Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell autograph album of book-collectors, 1453-1913. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 81001238

From the guide to the Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell autograph album of book-collectors, 1453-1913., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

Epithet: Director, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Title: Knight

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000295.0x00028d

Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (1867-1962), museum director and book-collector, was born in Brighton, son of Sydney John Cockerell and his wife Alice Elizabeth. He was educated briefly at St. Paul's School, London, before entering the family business Geo. J. Cockerell and Co. of Cornhill, as a clerk. Following the early death of his father, he gave up aspirations for a university career and went into a coal business with his two uncles until 1891. Through a family friend, Octavia Hill, he met John Ruskin, with whom he corresponded throughout the remainder of Ruskin's life. Through William Morris, he joined the committee of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and was employed by Morris to catalogue his library of manuscripts and early printed books. He was secretary to the poet and traveller Wilfred Scawen Blunt for a brief period, and was also manuscript advisor to Henry Yates Thompson. He then went into an engraving partnership with Emery Walker between 1900-1904.

Following the illness of his wife, (Florence) Kate Thompson, manuscript illuminator and artist, he became director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, on the resignation of Montague Rhodes James in 1908. He was to hold the post for a period of twenty-nine years. He was a member of the Roxburghe Club from 1915, and was a keen manuscript and book collector. He was knighted in 1934, and retired to Richmond where he later died.

From the guide to the Cockerell Papers relating to William de Brailes, 1929-1955, (University of Exeter)

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Subjects:

  • Artists
  • Autographs
  • Book collectors
  • Book collectors
  • Collectors and collecting
  • Poets, English
  • Illumination of books and manuscripts
  • Literature
  • Museum directors
  • Publishing, printing and book arts

Occupations:

  • Book collectors
  • Collector

Places:

  • Waterloo, Belgium (as recorded)
  • Pokrovskij, the Ukraine (as recorded)
  • United States of America (as recorded)
  • Tristan da Cunha Isle, S. Atlantic Ocean (as recorded)
  • Cours, Rhône (as recorded)
  • Kyancutta, S. Australia (as recorded)
  • England (as recorded)
  • Soviet Union, Asia (as recorded)
  • Leverington, Cambridgeshire (as recorded)
  • s Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands (as recorded)
  • Wisbech, Cambridgeshire (as recorded)
  • Chemnitz, Germany (as recorded)
  • Edinburgh, Scotland (as recorded)
  • Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (as recorded)
  • South Africa, Africa (as recorded)

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