William Reid

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(8 November 1926 – 19 June 2014) was a Scottish

military historian Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians norma ...

who became director of the

National Army Museum The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the "Chelsea Pensioners". The museum is a non-departmental public body. ...

."William Read".
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 2 September 2014, p. 54.

Early life

Reid was born in Glasgow and educated at Eastwood School. He read astronomy at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, University of Oxford, but left before graduation for military service. He began to study accountancy in Glasgow but abandoned that after a crash on his motorcycle left him in hospital. There he returned to his childhood interest in arms and armaments and corresponded internationally with experts in the subject. Jack Scott at the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum arranged for Reid to catalogue the armour collection of

Lord Howard de Walden Baron Howard de Walden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ of summons in 1597 by Queen Elizabeth I for Admiral Lord Thomas Howard, a younger son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, the Honourab ...

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

London

Reid obtained employment with

Accles & Pollock Accles & Pollock is a British tube manipulation company based in Oldbury, West Midlands. History The company was started in 1896 by James George Accles as Accles Ltd, based at Holford Mill in Perry Barr in Birmingham as a producer of cold-drawn ...

in Birmingham, a supplier of archery equipment, and in 1956 as a junior curator at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

. In London studied

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") ...

and

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

at the University of London. He became an assistant keeper in 1965 and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries the same year. Reid became director of the

in 1970, a position he held for 17 years. He became CBE in 1987.

Personal life

Reid was a better singer than he claimed and said that he always visited

Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...

with a score in hand in case his

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

services were required. He developed a large collection of military field glasses. Reid married Nina Frances Brigden in 1958. She survived Reid. They had no children.

Selected publications

*''The Lore of Arms: A concise history of weaponry''.

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, New York, 1984.

References

1926 births 2014 deaths Writers from Glasgow Members of the Order of the British Empire British military historians Historians of weapons {{UK-mil-bio-stub