Cecil Harcourt-Smith
British archaeologist (1859–1944)
Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith (11 September 1859 – 27 March 1944) was a British archaeologist and museum director. He was Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum from 1904 to 1909, and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1909 to 1924.
Early years
Born on 11 September 1859 in Staines, Middlesex, Harcourt-Smith was the second son of William Smith, solicitor, and his wife, Harriet, daughter of Frederic Harcourt, of Ipswich. He attended Winchester College (1873–78) as a scholar. In 1879 he joined the department of Roman and Greek antiquities in the British Museum. He soon became known as a rising archaeologist, and in 1887 was a founder editor and contributor to the Classical Review.
In 1887 Harcourt-Smith was attached to the diplomatic mission in Persia. In 1892 he married Alice Edith, daughter of H. W. Watson of Burnopfield, Co. Durham. They had two sons, Simon and Gilbert.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cecil Harcourt-Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.