It was rather nice to learn this archetypal Victorian figure was a spirited and mischievous young man!

Obituary - The Times Monday January 9, 1928

The Death of Sir Alfred Temple

We regret to announce that Sir Alfred Temple, Director of the Guildhall Gallery, died at his house in Dulwich Village yesterday, in his 80 th year.

Alfred George Temple came from a family which had served the Corporation of London for successive generations; he was, indeed, wont to claim that the name of Temple is the oldest at the Guildhall. His father, Josiah Temple, and his brother Frederick had been in office there, in aggregate for 41 years before that; and Alfred himself served it for nearly 60. He was educated at Denmark Hill Grammar School, and was at first destined for a commercial career. On leaving school he was placed in the office of a firm of underwriters, but in two years time high spirits and a ledger thrown at a senior clerk led to his enforced retirement – a retirement which he never regretted – and after six months of freedom he obtained a post in the Town Clerk’s department at Guildhall. For some time during this period of his life he studied in the evenings at the Lambeth School of Art and the schools of the South Kensington Museum, passing in due course through the antique and life classes. In the practical and technical experience thus gained he laid the foundations of his future career in the City’s Art Gallery.

The Guildhall Art Gallery was established by the Corporation in 1886, and Alfred Temple was appointed first director; his election, as he recalled in his “Guildhall Memories” was in no small measure due to W W Ouless RA and Frank Holl RA. The gallery began with 288 works of art, represented by paintings, statuary, miniatures, and engravings; in thirty years it had grown to 937 works, most of which had come into the Corporation’s possession by gift or bequest. In 1891 the Corporation was persuaded to use the gallery for loan exhibitions, and since then Alfred Temple has arranged the many which attracted more than three million people. Among these exhibitions was that devoted to Turner, and in other exhibitions were displayed the works of the artists of France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, and Denmark. He also took an active part in international and other exhibitions held in this country and the Continental Cities, and was chairman of the Irish International Exhibition in 1907. He received a knighthood in 1920, and in addition held many foreign orders. A frequent contributor to the art periodicals, he was also the author of a number of works on artistic subjects.

Sir Alfred Temple married in 1880, Elizabeth Mary Harriot, the daughter of Mr Edwin Crosley, long a member of the Stock Exchange. Lady Temple died in 1926, but he leaves one son.

The funeral will be at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Prince-Consort-road, Kensington Gore on Thursday at 11.30, and the burial in the West Norwood Cemetery.