Sir Richard Rivington Holmes, KCVO (16 November 1835 – 22 March 1911) was a British archivist and courtier.[1]

Biography

Holmes was Royal Librarian at Windsor Castle, 1870-1905. He was appointed by Queen Victoria and was reappointed by King Edward VII in 1901.[2]

He was a lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Berkshire Regiment. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in January 1905.[3] In 1895 He received the Queen Victoria Version of the Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal for 25 years service to the British Royal Family.

He died in London on 22 March 1911, and was buried at Upton, Buckinghamshire.[4]

Family

In 1880, Holmes married Evelyn Gee, eldest daughter of the Reverend Richard Gee, Vicar of New Windsor and Canon of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.[4]

Ethiopian collection

Holmes was part of the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1868, during which many Ethiopian documents, cultural artefacts, and art objects were looted as spoils of war by British soldiers. Holmes himself took a large cache of loot from the Battle of Magdala back to Great Britain, much of which found its way into the British Museum.[5][6] The looted Kwer’ata Re’esu icon (a European painting of Christ with the crown of thorns) remained in his personal possession.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Holmes, Sir Richard Rivington". Who's Who. 1911. p. 985.
  2. ↑ "No. 27336". The London Gazette. 23 July 1901. p. 4838.
  3. ↑ "No. 27761". The London Gazette. 3 February 1905. p. 841.
  4. 1 2 Woods 1912.
  5. ↑ Hespeler-Boultbee, John Jeremy (2011). A Story in Stones: Portugal's Influence on Culture and Architecture in the Highlands of Ethiopia. CCB Publishing. p. 178. ISBN 9781926585994. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  6. ↑ British Museum Collection
  7. ↑ Mesfin Kebede, Gidena; Meyer-Abich, Susanne. "Translocations and Changes in Perspective". Journal for Art Market Studies. ISSN 2511-7602. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
Attribution

Wikisource This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Woods, Gabriel Stanley (1912). "Holmes, Richard Rivington". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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