Geoffrey Callender

Geoffrey Arthur Romaine Callender ( born November 25, 1875 in Didsbury, † November 6, 1946 in Greenwich ( London) ) was a British naval historian. He was from 1937 the director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich ( London).

He was the eldest son of the owner of a cotton mill in the Manchester area, went to Oxford to school and studied at the University of Oxford ( Merton College ) History ( Modern History ) with the conclusion of 1897. Starting from 1905 he taught at two years previously founded Royal Naval College at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight naval history, history and English and was from 1913 before the department. In 1921 he moved to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth (Devon) and 1922 at the Greenwich, which was then upgraded by introducing a Staff College and War College.

In 1920 he was honorary secretary and treasurer of the Society for Nautical Research. In this role, he stood behind the campaign to preserve the HMS Victory and the establishment of the National Maritime Museum. Its basis was the collection of the Naval College and by Callender 1928 incurred buying the Macpherson Collection of marine prints. Patrons, such as the shipowner James Caird (1864-1954) supported these initiatives - this paid both involved the purchase of prints as well as the remodeling of the future museum and was already in the restoration of HMS Victory. As the seat of the Queen's House was chosen in Greenwich, formerly the seat of the Royal Hospital School. 1934, the founding of the museum was officially adopted and Callender 's first director, who then gave up his professorship at the Royal Naval College ( he was succeeded by Michael Lewis). In 1937, the museum was opened. He died in his museum of a heart attack.

Since he found no suitable textbook in his early days as a teacher of naval history at the Royal Naval College, he himself wrote a three-volume textbook Sea Kings of Great Britain. His most famous work is The Naval Side of British History ( 1924).

He never married. In 1938 he was knighted.

Writings

• The Life of Nelson, Longmans, Green 1912
• Sea Kings of Britain, 3 vols, London: Longmans Green, 1907-1911, Volume 1
• The Naval Side of British History, London: Christophers 1924
• The Queen's House, Greenwich: a short history, 1617-1937, National Maritime Museum 1967
• Editor and commentator: Southey 's Life of Nelson, New York: Dutton 1922 archives
• Publisher of Stephen Martin Leake (1702-1773): The life of Sir John Leake, rear- admiral of Great Britain, 2 vols, Navy Records Society, 1920, Volume 1, Volume 2