Obituary of William Henry James Weale

William Henry James Weale (1832–1917) was an art-historian and antiquarian with a special knowledge of Belgian art history. In 1872 he joined the South Kensington Museum (renamed the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1899) and in 1890 was appointed Keeper of the National Art Library.

From The Times, 28 April 1917

The death is announced of Mr William Henry James Weale, the art-historian and antiquary.

Mr Weale was born in Marylebone on March 9, 1832 and was educated at King's College, London. Early in life he began to travel and by his 19th year he had visited, he said, every parish in Belgium, the country where he was afterwards to make his home for many years. From the first he was a student of archaeology and art. His first publication was a practical but learned archaeological guidebook to Belgium, Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne (1859); and by that time he was already a member of the Royal Society of Fine Arts, Ghent and of the Archaeological Society of Mons.

Somewhere about 1860 he settled in Bruges in order to better prosecute those studies in the Medieval arts and crafts of the Netherlands which were to make him the greatest authority on the subject. As the result of his labours, Belgian custodians and librarians were provoked into taking more care of their treasures and he also reconstructed the artistic history of the old Flemish city of Bruges.

With all his learning, Mr Weale was far from being a recluse. He took an active interest in municipal life, whether at Bruges or at Clapham, his English home. In 1872 he was entrusted by the South Kensington Museum with the classification and description of its Netherlands art-objects and in 1890 was appointed Keeper of the National Art Library. Mr Weale was invited to relate his experiences in that position before the Committee which met in1897 to inquire into the Science and Art Museums. He had found himself in a post without authority or responsibility, without a trained staff, in a library which years of mis-management had reduced to chaos and in an organization which resisted all his efforts at reform. In August 1897 - a month after the issue of a preliminary report by the Committee - Mr Weale was abruptly retired by the Lords Commissioners of the Council of Education. When, in July 1899, the Committee issued its full report, it stated that 'the termination of his engagement subsequent to the giving of evidence by Mr Weale in which errors and abuses of administration in the museum were freely exposed much resembles a breach of privilege and an infringement of the immunity usually enjoyed by witnesses before the Committees of the House of Commons'. The loss to the museum was deplorable; it would have been still more deplorable had not Mr Weale left his spirit alive in the young men whom he had trained.

Mr Weale married Helena A Walton and leaves four sons and five daughters. Among his honours were those of membership of the Royal Flemish Academy and the Order of Leopold. His own country left his achievement unrecognised.

Reproduced with kind permission of The Times
© Times Newspapers Limited