Sir James Gow Mann[1] KCVO FBA FSA (23 September 1897 – 5 December 1962) was an eminent figure in the art world in the mid twentieth century, specialising in the study of armour.
[7] His first appointment upon leaving university in 1922 was as Assistant Keeper of the Department of Fine Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where he stayed for two years working on the collection of the antiquary Francis Douce.
[8] The post came with a Readership in the History of Art at the University of London but Mann realised that teaching was not his true vocation and, when the trustees of the Wallace Collection invited him back following the death of the keeper, Samuel Camp, he returned to Hertford House in 1936.
In 1938, when Charles ffoulkes retired as Master of the Armouries at the Tower of London, Mann requested permission from the trustees of the Wallace Collection to apply for the post which was part time and virtually unpaid.
Early on in the post, which again he held until his premature death, Mann had to arrange for the evacuation of the contents of the Armouries and virtually all of the Wallace Collection to various locations in Beaconsfield, Hertfordshire and Wales when World War II broke out.
[4] Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours List, 1948[14] Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, New Year Honours List, 1957[15] Director (1944) then President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1949-1954[4] Fellow of the British Academy, 1952[4] Member and honorary secretary of the British Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, Archives and Other Material in Enemy Hands (the Macmillan Committee), 1943-1946[16] At various times he was, trustee of the British Museum and the College of Arms, a governor of the National Army Museum, chairman of the National Buildings Record, vice-chairman of Archbishop’s Historic Churches Preservation Trust, a member of the Royal Mint advisory committee, of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, and of the Historic Buildings Council.