Plenderleith, Harold James

1898 - 1997

British conservator; he was born in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, 19 Sept. 1898, son of Robert James P., art teacher, and Lucy Bell; he was educated at the Harris Academy in Dundee and went to University College of St. Andrews in 1916 to study science; he left to serve in World War I where he earned a MC in 1918 and then completed his education at University College, Dundee; BSc,1921; PhD, 1923; in 1924 he joined the laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at the British Museum which became the Research Laboratory of the British Museum in 1931; Assistant Keeper, 1931-8; Deputy Keeper, 1938-49; Keeper, 1949-59; Professor of Chemistry, Royal Academy of Arts, 1936-58; Director, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, 1959-71; President of the International Institute for the Conservation of Museum Objects, 1965-8; CBE, 1959; he worked on the scientific analysis of objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun and was responsible for the care of the objects evacuated from the British Museum during World War II; his principal publication was The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, 1956; revised ed., 1971; he died in Inverness, 2 Nov. 1997.

• Who Was Who in Egyptology (4th ed. 2012), 437.