Obituary of William Augustus Henry King

William Augustus Henry King (1894–1958) was a specialist in British and European glass and ceramics. He joined the Victoria & Albert Museum at the end of WWI, and wrote several books on the ceramics collections.

From The Times, 24 February 1958

Ceramics at British Museum
Mr W A H King, who was Deputy Keeper of the department of British and medieval antiquities at the British Museum until his retirement in 1954, died yesterday on his sixty-fourth birthday.

William Augustus Henry King was the only son of the late Colonel Henry Somerset King, RE. The family was in direct descent from John Locke's nephew Peter King, Lord Chancellor, created Lord King of Ockham in 1725. Since 1838 the title has been held by the Earls of Lovelace. For some time, however, W A H King was heir-presumptive to the barony of King until the birth of the present earl's son.

King was born on February 23, 1894. From Eton, where he was in the select for the Newcastle Scholarship, he went up to Bailiol to read classics. His course was interrupted by the war and from 1914 to 1918 he served with a commission in the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment. During the Second World War he served again in the army (1940-42) with the Royal Artillery, and then in a department of the Foreign Office. After the first war he joined the Victoria and Albert Museum, transferring later to the British Museum, from which he retired in 1954. After his retirement he continued to give the museum indispensable help in his special subjects. These were British and European glass and ceramics, in which his information was vast and exact and his taste exquisite. In such studies his publications had been a catalogue of the Jones Collection at the V&A (1922), a catalogue of William de Morgan's pottery (1921), 'Chelsea Porcelain' (1922), and 'English Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century' (1925). He also edited the 'Memoirs of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough' (1930), and contributed an introduction to a re-issue of Norman Douglas's 'South Wind' (1946). He was at one time contemplating a book on Swift, which to the regret of those who appreciated his acumen was never undertaken.

William King was one of those rare men who combine unrelenting accuracy with a polished style and easy wit. Although he was the least pedantic of men, no textual errors, nothing slipshod, ever escaped him. Yet with these conspicuous gifts it is his great kindness and loyalty that will long be remembered by the wide and varied circle of friends who delighted in his impulsive and unselfconscious eccentricities. He had a passion for helping people; the slightest hint about some problem would call forth from him all the essential references to be found in the museum. Although he pretended to have forgotten his classics he could put scholars right with startling effect and he had a recondite and ready knowledge of the Bible. His tastes in art, literature, and music were sure and outspoken. He would avow a personal devotion for some contemporary writers together with a complete inability to read their works. One great exception in this respect must be mentioned. When Norman Douglas returned to London in the war, King and his wife became devoted and helpful friends. At the same time there was no greater admirer of Douglas's writings than King, who found in them a paganism so much in harmony with his own outlook.

Although slight and even fragile in appearance there was an aristocratic toughness in him, rather like Horace Walpole's. He never wore a hat, and an overcoat was a sign that he was really unwell. Until recent years he was a familiar sight speeding through the streets to the museum. One says 'streets' advisedly. To a friend who said that it must be pleasant to walk to the museum from Kensington across the Park be replied: 'My dear, don't you know? I simply hate the country!' The more sophisticated forms of art received his undivided love, and so he was a most familiar figure at Covent Garden and in easier times would travel across Europe solely to hear some rare opera. In few men has the gem-like flame burned with greater intensity or with a more lovable quality.

He married Dorothy Elizabeth, the only daughter of Henry Campbell Booth. As Viva her name is linked with Willie King's in the memories of those who enjoyed their hospitality in what may be one of the last salons of London.

Reproduced with kind permission of The Times
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