David Piper (curator)

{{Short description|British museum curator and author (1918–1990)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}{{Infobox person

| name = David Piper

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1918|07|21|df=y}}

| birth_place = Wimbledon, London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1990|12|29|1918|07|21}}

| death_place = Wytham, Oxfordshire, England

| resting_place =

| alma_mater = University of Cambridge (MA)

| occupation = Museum curator

| employer = National Portrait Gallery, London; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

| years_active =

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| spouse = {{marriage|Anne Horatia|1945}}

| children = 3 daughters and 1 son

}}

Sir David Towry Piper CBE FSA FRSL (21 July 1918 – 29 December 1990) was a British museum curator and author. He was director of the National Portrait Gallery 1964–1967, and of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1967–1973; and Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1967–1973, and Director of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1973–1985 and Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, 1973–1985. He was knighted in 1983.

The second of three sons of Stephen Harvey Piper, Professor of Physics at Bristol University, Piper was born at Wimbledon and educated at Clifton College"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p475: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948 and St Catharine's College, Cambridge (where he took a MA).{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39819 | title=Piper, Sir David Towry | year=2004 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39819 | isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 | accessdate=16 October 2019 }} {{subscription required}}Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, Volume 95, Kelly's Directories, 1969, p. 1585

Piper was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford for 1966–1967.{{cite web|url=http://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/hoa/documents/pdf/Oxford_Slade_Professors.pdf|title=Oxford Slade Professors, 1870–present|publisher=University of Oxford|date=2012|accessdate=27 January 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213123228/http://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/hoa/documents/pdf/Oxford_Slade_Professors.pdf|archivedate=13 February 2015|df=dmy-all}}

In 1956, Piper prepared a descriptive catalogue of the Petre family portraits at Ingatestone Hall for the Essex Record Office.{{cite book|first=David|last=Piper|author-link=Sir David Piper|title=Petre family Portraits|year=1956|publisher=Essex Record Office Publication No 26}} He gave the 1968 Aspects of Art Lecture.{{cite web|title=Aspects of Art Lectures|website=The British Academy|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectures/listings/aspects-art-lectures/}}{{cite journal|author=Piper, David|title=The Development of the British Literary Portrait up to Samuel Johnson|volume=54|pages=51–72|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|year=1970|url=http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/54p051.pdf}}{{Dead link|date=June 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Under the pseudonym Peter Towry, Piper wrote a number of novels, including Trial by Battle (1959), a story based on his experiences as an officer in the Indian army, training in Bangalore and then seeing action against the Imperial Japanese Army in Malaya during World War II. He was subsequently a prisoner of war in Japan for three years.{{cite news|title=David Piper, 72, Dies; British Art Historian|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/04/obituaries/david-piper-72-dies-british-art-historian.html|accessdate=17 April 2015| newspaper=The New York Times |date=4 January 1991}}

In 1945, Piper married Anne Horatia (1920–2017), daughter of Oliffe Richmond, classics professor at Edinburgh University. She was a novelist and playwright. They had three daughters – Evanthe, Ruth, and Emma –{{cite news| url=http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/15321623.OBITUARY__Peace_campaigner__writer_and_mother_of_Tower_of_London_poppy_installation_designer/ | title=OBITUARY: Lady Anne Piper, who has died aged 96 | newspaper=Oxford Times | date=1 June 2017 | accessdate=8 November 2017 }}{{cite news| url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12698053.The_joy_of_sets/ | title=The joy of sets | newspaper=The Sunday Herald | date=7 May 1994 | accessdate=8 November 2017 }} and a son, theatre designer Tom Piper (born 1964).

Piper died in Wytham, Oxfordshire, on 29 December 1990.