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

Biography

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, 1870-1905. He was appointed by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

and was reappointed by

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

in 1901. He was a

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

of the 1st

Volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

Battalion,

Berkshire Regiment The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was created in 1881, as the Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment), b ...

. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in January 1905. In 1895 He received the Queen Victoria Version of the

Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal The Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal is a civil decoration awarded by the British monarch to servants of the royal household for long and faithful service. History The Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal was establis ...

for 25 years service to the British Royal Family. He died in London on 22 March 1911, and was buried at

Upton, Buckinghamshire Upton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Dinton-with-Ford and Upton, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located to the north of the main village of Dinton, on the junction between the new road from Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county t ...

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 St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

Ethiopian collection

Holmes was part of the

British Expedition to Abyssinia The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, ...

in 1868, during which many Ethiopian documents, cultural artefacts, and art objects were

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

as spoils of war by British soldiers. Holmes himself took a large cache of loot from the

Battle of Magdala The Battle of Magdala was the conclusion of the British Expedition to Abyssinia fought in April 1868 between British and Abyssinian forces at Magdala, from the Red Sea coast. The British were led by Robert Napier, while the Abyssinians were ...

back to Great Britain, much of which found its way into the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The looted Kwer’ata Re’esu

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

(a European painting of Christ with the

crown of thorns According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or grc, ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos, label=none) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the in ...

) remained in his personal possession.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Richard 1835 births 1911 deaths Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order People educated at Highgate School Royal Librarians

Biography

Family

Ethiopian collection

See also

Notes