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Royal Armouries Library, London

FFOULKES, Charles John (1868-1947)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 2919 FFOULKES

Held at: Royal Armouries Library, London

Title: FFOULKES, Charles John (1868-1947)

Date(s): [1900]-1938

Level of description: sub-fonds

Extent: 3 volumes

Name of creator(s): ffoulkes | Charles John | 1868-1947

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 26 June 1868, son of Rev. Edmund Salusbury ffoulkes, BD. He was educated at Radley School, Shrewsbury School, and St John's College, Oxford.

He left Oxford without a degree and went on to study art. His interest turned to the metalwork and the study of metallic artefacts and thence to arms and armour. He was invited to give lectures for the Oxford History Board on Armour and military subjects, gaining a Bachelor of Letters, 1911. In 1913, he was appointed Curator of the Tower Armouries, 1913-1935, and Master of the Armouries, 1935-1938. In 1917, ffoulkes obtained government approval of a plan to collect historical material relating to the current war, and was appointed First Curator and Secretary Imperial War Museum (IWM), 1917-1933, and following his retirement from the IWM he became one of its Trustees, 1934-1946. He remained in his part time post at the Tower until the age of 70, in 1938 and continued to publish his writings.

ffoulkes was also Lieutenant RNVR, 1914-1918; Major Royal Marines, unattached, 1918-1920; Member, War Office Committee on Military Museum; Hon. Freeman, Armourers' Company; Volunteer Warden, ARP, 1939; Sergeant of Pioneers, Home Guard, 20th Bn Middlesex Regt, 1940-1945; Officer of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, 1929; and was awarded Hon. DLitt. Oxon, 1936; CB 1934; OBE 1925.

In 1942, he married, Dorothy Agnes Garratt, MBE. He died 22 April 1947.

Publications:
Armour and Weapons, 1909; new edition, Gaya's Traité des Armes, 1911; Arms and Armour in the University of Oxford; The Armourer and his Craft, 1912; Ironwork, 1913; Survey and Inventory of the Tower of London, 1917; Catalogue of the Armourers' and Brasiers' Company; Notes on the Pierpont Morgan XIIIth Century Old Testament, 1927; The Gun-founders of England, 1936; Sword, Lance, and Bayonet, 1938; Arms and the Tower, 1939; Arms and Armament, 1945; many papers in Archæologia, Journal of Army Historical Research, etc.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Personal papers of Charles John ffoulkes comprising scrap book compiled 1915-1938 containing cuttings, photographs, prints, etc 1883-1938; and two photograph albums (attributed to ffoulkes,) [1900-1950].

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

By appointment only. Contact the Curator, The Library, Royal Armouries, HM Tower of London, EC3N 4AB

Conditions governing reproduction:

Subject to normal copyright restrictions, and depending on the condition of the material.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

The material is uncatalogued.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Unknown

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

The Royal Armouries and Office of Ordnance, and Tower of London archives are also held at the Royal Armouries Library.

Other papers of ffoulkes are held at the Imperial War Museum and the library of the Worshipful Company Armourers and Brasiers; correspondence of Edmund Salusbury ffoulkes, (1819-1894) Theologian and Classical Scholar, held at Pusey House Library, Oxford.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Sources: Historical Manuscripts Commission's On-Line National Register of Archives; Royal Armouries Yearbook 5, 2000; Who's Who 1897-1996, (CD-ROM) A & C Black, Oxford University Press, 1996;
Compiled by Alison Field as part of the London Signpost Survey Project.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: September 2003


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Armour | Military equipment | Equipment
Photographs | Visual materials
Press cuttings | Newspaper press | Press
Prints | Visual materials
Weapons | Military equipment | Equipment

Personal names
ffoulkes | Charles John | 1868-1947

Corporate names
Tower Armouries | Tower of London

Places
Tower of London | Stepney | London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Tower Hamlets