Bulkeley Bandinel

During Admiral Sir James Saumarez's Baltic campaign of 1808, Bandinel served a short while as chaplain on board HMS Victory.

In 1822 he was promoted to the rectory of St Andrew's Church, Haughton-le-Skerne formerly held by his brother-in-law, Thomas Le Mesurier.

The Bodleian's collections increased greatly under his direction and his knowledge of literary circles was rarely seconded.

His patience with both ill-informed library visitors and colleagues would often run thin, many a guest falling victim to his short temper, but it is said that his courtesy was guaranteed to anyone of note who wished to consult him.

Macray in his Annals of the Bodleian Library[3] recounts that Bandinel resigned his librarianship in 1860 "after forty-seven years of office as in the capacity of Head, and a total of fifty of work in the Library... At the age of seventy-nine the natural infirmities of age were felt by himself to incapacitate him for the duties which he had so long and so regularly discharged; while at the same time the continually increasing pressure of work and requirements of the Library made those duties much more onerous than they had been even a quarter of a century before."