Sir Charles Travis Clay (30 July 1885 – 31 January 1978) was an English librarian and antiquarian who was the librarian of the

House of Lords Library The House of Lords Library is the library and information resource of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provides Members of the House and their staff with books, Parliamentary material and reference ...

from 1922 to 1956.

Early life and education

Clay was born at Rastrick House in

Rastrick Rastrick is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England, between Halifax, 5 miles (8 km) north-east and Huddersfield, 4 miles (7 km) south. The population of the Calderdale Civil Ward at the 2011 census was 11,351. It is perhaps best ...

, near Halifax, Yorkshire, the younger son of historian and genealogist John William Clay and his wife, Alice Caroline Pilleau. His mother was the daughter of Colonel Henry Pilleau and descended from Pezé Pilleau, the notable Huguenot silversmith. His only brother, Lionel Pilleau Clay, was killed in action in 1918 in the First World War. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, earning a scholarship for mathematics at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

in 1904. After gaining only second-class honours in mathematical moderations, he was able to keep his scholarship but read history. Under the tutelage of

Henry William Carless Davis Henry William Carless Davis (13 January 1874 – 28 June 1928) was a British historian, editor of the '' Dictionary of National Biography'', and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History. Early career Davis was born in Ebley, near Stroud, Glo ...

and

Arthur Lionel Smith Arthur Lionel Smith (1850 – 12 April 1924) was a British historian at the University of Oxford. Smith served as Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1916 to 1924. Early life Smith was born on 4 December 1850. He studied at Balliol College, ...

, he took first-class honours in modern history in 1908.

Career

Clay became assistant secretary to the

Marquess of Crewe Marquess of Crewe was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for the Liberal statesman Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe. He had already been created Earl of Crewe, of Crewe, Cheshire, in 1895, and was made Ear ...

, first at the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

and then at the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

. After Sir

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...

retired in 1914, Lord Crewe, at that time Leader of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

, recommended Clay as an Assistant Librarian at

. Shortly afterward, he was commissioned into the

Royal Devon Yeomanry The Royal Devon Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1920. It participated in the Second World War and now forms a squadron of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry. History Formation Following the experience of the First World Wa ...

and sent to France. He rose to the rank of major and was twice

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. He succeeded as librarian in 1922, and served approximately three decades in the post while continuing to pursue his passion for genealogy and antiquities, earning a reputation for his expertise in both art and archaeology. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) for 65 years and vice-president of the society from 1934 to 1938. He also served as honorary vice-president of the Royal Historical Society. He was a member of the Huguenot Society and the Harleian Society as well as the Roxburgh Club for bibliophiles. In 1943, Clay was awarded an honorary DLitt, octorate of Lettersfrom the University of Leeds. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, civil division, in the 1944 New Year Honours. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

elected in 1950. Following his retirement, he was knighted in the

1957 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1957 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate ...

Personal life

In 1913, Clay married the Hon. Alice Violet Robson (1892–1972), daughter of Liberal MP and Attorney General William Snowdon Robson, Baron Robson. She was a life-long Liberal. They had three daughters: Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop (1914–2011), a prominent archaeologist; Dr Diana Franklin Laurenson (1920–1977), who defended her doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics in 1960 and taught at the London Polytechnic; and Rosemary Travis Howarth (1924–2009) who studied and subsequently worked at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

. All three daughters married and there were eight grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. Sir Charles Travis Clay died in Little Tew, Oxfordshire, in 1978.

References

External links

Papers of Charles T. Clay
at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clay, Charles Travis 1885 births 1978 deaths British Army personnel of World War I Military personnel from Yorkshire People from Rastrick Royal Devon Yeomanry officers English librarians English archaeologists People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the British Academy