T. S. R. Boase

Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase, MC, FBA (1898–1974) was an art historian, university teacher, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.

Life
Thomas Boase was born in Dundee, Scotland, and was educated at Rugby School in England (1912–17). He fought on the Western Front during World War I in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (1917–19) and was awarded the Military Cross. Boase studied Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1919–21, and was subsequently Fellow and Tutor at Hertford College from 1922–37.

From 1937–47, Boase was Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and Professor of History of Art at the University of London. During World War II, he worked in the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, followed by the RAF in Cairo, Egypt, from 1939–41. He was then in charge of British Council activities in the Middle East, also based in Cairo, from 1943–45.

From 1947–68, Boase was President of Magdalen College. He also served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1958–60.

He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford for 1963–64.

Boase became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1961. He was a Trustee of the National Gallery (1947–53) and the British Museum (1950–69). He was also a member of the Advisory Council of the Victoria and Albert Museum (1947–70).