Whitworth Wallis

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Whitworth Wallis (23 June 1855 – 16 January 1927) was the first director of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which opened in 1885. He was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, and educated privately in London, Paris and Hanover. His father, George Wallis, was an artist and the first Keeper of Fine Art at the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria & Albert Museum); his mother was Matilda Condell. Wallis trained with his father, and in 1879 he was put in charge of the Bethnal Green Museum (now the V&A Museum of Childhood). In 1885 he became curator of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and later its first director. He was knighted in 1912, the first time the honor was given to a provincial municipal officer. He served as a trustee of Shakespeare's Birthplace and was involved with the National Art Collections Fund, and he was active with the Birmingham & Midland Institute. He died in Stratford-on-Avon in 1927 at the age of 71.