Frank George Griffith Carr (23 April 1903 – 9 July 1991) CB, CBE, MA, LLB, FSA, was director of the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from 1947 to 1966 and was responsible for restoring and preserving a large number of ships, such as the

Cutty Sark ''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of ...

and the

Gypsy Moth IV ''Gipsy Moth IV'' is a ketch that Sir Francis Chichester commissioned specifically to sail single-handed around the globe, racing against the times set by the clipper ships of the 19th century. Gipsy Moth IV was the first ever purpose built o ...

. After retirement he was involved in the creation of the

Maritime Trust The Maritime Trust is a Registered Charity in England, based at 2 Greenwich Church Street, London SE10 9BG. It was founded in 1970 and amalgamated with the Cutty Sark Society in 1975, and has a permit to restore, preserve, and display to the publi ...

and the World Ship Trust which served the purpose of preserving old ships.

Life

Frank Carr fell in love with sailing barges as a boy of 10. He acquired his first boat, a skiff-dinghy, in 1918. He used this vessel, the ''Maud'', to explore the broads, fens and estuaries of

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. He was educated at

The Perse School (He who does things for others does them for himself) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = Nondenominational Christian , president = , head_label = Head , he ...

and

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

. While he was studying for his law degree at Cambridge, his first job was on a barge travelling between

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

and

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1928. On graduation, he became assistant librarian at 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 ...

. He began research for his first book, ''Sailing Barges'', published in 1931. He continued sailing and his book ''A Yachtsman's log'' tells of the voyages made to the Baltic, Spain, and the British coastline in his Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter ''Cariad''. After serving in the

RNVR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was appointed director of the National Maritime Museum in 1946 where he supervised and oversaw its growth while also incorporating a number of other historic parts of Greenwich. He resigned from the museum in 1966 in controversial circumstances. He served on the council of the

Society for Nautical Research The Society for Nautical Research is a British society that conducts research and sponsors projects related to maritime history worldwide. Founded in 1910, the Society initially encouraged research into seafaring, ship-building, the language and c ...

and was made its Honorary Vice-President. He was a founder and chairman of the World Ship Trust (1978) and largely responsible for the survival of the

. Carr was awarded the

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 ...

(1954) and was made a CB (1967). He died 9 July 1991, survived by his wife Ruth. A memorial service was held in the chapel of the

Old Royal Naval College The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding ...

in October.

Publications

*''Sailing Barges'' (1931, 5th edition 1989) *''Vanishing craft'' (1934) *''A Yachtsman's log'' (1935) *''Yacht master’s guide and coastal companion'' (1940) *''The Cutty Sark and the days of sail'' (c1962) *''Maritime Greenwich'' (1974) *''Gypsy Moth IV'' (c1981)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Frank George Griffith 1903 births 1991 deaths Directors of the National Maritime Museum Academics of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People educated at The Perse School British maritime historians Companions of the Order of the Bath