Patrick John Boylan, FGS, FMA, FCMI (17 August 1939 – 8 February 2024) was an English geologist and museum director who was professor of heritage policy, and a leading international authority on museum policy and management.Who’s Who, 2023 edition, p. 266. He first built up his experience of museum work at three English regional museums: in Kingston upon Hull, Exeter and Leicester.
Early life and education Born and brought up in Hull, Yorkshire, Boylan was the eldest son of Francis Boylan and Mary Doreen Boylan (née Haxby). His father was a master joiner in the town.1939 Register of civilians in England and Wales.
Boylan attended the Marist College, Hull,The Marist College for boys later amalgamated with St Mary's Convent High School for Girls under the name of St Mary's College. before enrolling at Hull University, where he earned a BSc in Geography and Geology in 1960, followed by a PGCE in 1961.Who's Who, 2023, p. 266 He resumed his academic studies part time after a hiatus of some years and was awarded a PhD from the University of Leicester in 1985 in Geology and History of Science for his thesis on the life and work of Dean William Buckland (1784–1856), geologist and speleologist.See: William Buckland, 1784–1856: scientific institutions, vertebrate palaeontology and quaternary geology. Online access through University of Leicester, Leicester Research Archive.
Career Although he embarked on a teaching career, serving from 1961 to 1963 as an assistant master at the Marist College, his old school in Hull, he then set off down a rather different career path in the museum world. In 1964, he became keeper of geology and natural history for Kingston upon Hull Museums.Who's Who, 2023, p. 266. While working there he won with distinction the Museums Diploma awarded by the Museums Association (1966).
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter In 1968, aged 28, he was appointed director of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery for Exeter City Council, retaining that position until 1972.See Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society, "Patrick John Boylan Esq. B Sc FGS FMA MBIM 1981–82". One of the first exhibitions he mounted was a one-man show in August–September 1968 of the works of the illustrator and cartoonist George Adamson, who lived locally.For a photograph of Adamson standing by the exhibition's poster outside the RAMM, see Adamson at RAMM. In October 1969 he organised an exhibition to mark the centenary of the RAMM, which had opened to the public in 1869.See Bibliography. At Boylan's instigation an archaeological unit was set up by Exeter City Council, leading to "a remarkably long history of archaeological excavation in the city".See John Wilmut and Alan Finch, "Patrick Boylan 1939–2024", William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust Newsletter, no. 139, 2024, pp. 1–2.
Leicestershire museums, art galleries and records service In 1972 he assumed the role of director of museums and art galleries for Leicester City Council, thus running eight museums, including the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, now Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, and two years later was elevated to the directorship of arts, museums and records for Leicestershire County Council.According to Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, "Patrick Boylan first brought together the museums, heritage properties and record offices of Leicester City, Leicestershire County and Rutland County into a single integrated service." See: Patrick John Boylan Esq.
Among many achievements at the New Walk Museum under Boylan's directorship was the loan exhibition German Impressionism and Expressionism from Leicester held at Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, from 12 November to 20 December 1985. The museum holds one of the foremost collections of German Expressionism in the United Kingdom.See Bibliography for details of the catalogue with introduction by Boylan. See also Leicester's German Expressionist Collection.
While serving as museum director in Leicester, he put himself forward in 1987 for the post of director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as successor to Roy Strong, who was about to step down. Although Boylan was on the short list of external candidates, the directorship went to Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, one of the internal candidates.The Roy Strong Diaries, 1967–1987. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 414 .
City, University of London His career then reverted to teaching, but now at tertiary level and in the realms of cultural heritage and preservation, when he was appointed professor of arts policy and management and later head of the department of cultural policy at the City, University of London, in 1990. There he remained until 2004.Who's Who, 2023, pp. 266–7.
Professorships Boylan served briefly as visiting professor at University College London in 1995. From 1997 to 2002 he was visiting professor at the University of Buckingham; and for a short sojourn in Rio de Janeiro in 1998 at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
In 2004 he was appointed professor emeritus of heritage policy and management, City University, London.Boylan, Patrick J. (editor), Running a Museum: A Practical Handbook, short biography, p. 217.
Museums Association For the Museums Association, the diploma of which he had earned in 1966, he served as councillor (1970–1 and 1986–92) and as Centenary President (1988–90).
International Council of Museums (ICOM) For the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Boylan served in a panoply of roles: as chairman of the International Committee for Training of Personnel from 1983 to 1989 and from 1998 to 2004; as chairman of the UK National Committee (1987–93); as member of the Advisory Committee (1983–93); as chairman of the Ethics Committee (1984–90); as member of the Executive Committee (1989–92); as vice-president (1992–8); as chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee (2004–8); and in 2004, on reaching retirement age, became an honorary member.
UNESCO and other international institutions Boylan served as consultant for UNESCO; for the UN/UNESCO World Committee on Culture and Development; for the Council of Europe; the World Bank; and the British Council among other institutions. He was also involved in providing training in cultural protection for United States special forces.See "The US could have saved Iraq's cultural heritage".
From 2005 to 2009 he was editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Intangible Heritage, and a member of its executive board from 2018 to 2021.See: International Journal of Intangible Heritage.
Geology, palaeontology and archaeology Boylan held a lifelong interest in these fields. For the Hull Geological society he served as president from 1964 to 1967;See HGS website. for the Geological Society he was chairman of its library committee from 1984 to 1987; for the William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust (WPCST) in Devon, he was chairman (2007–15), then honorary president.See directorship listing of William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust (WPCST) at Companies House. For the Yorkshire Geological Society he was president (2012–14), then vice president (2015–17).
Local community support For the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society he was president in 1981–2; for the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society he served as president from 2021. He also served as president of the Rotary Club of Leicester from 2009 to 2010,See list of past presidents. and in 2011 was awarded the Paul Harris medal by the club for services to the community.This medal is only awarded every few years or so.
Boylan was a member of the Royal Society of Arts.
Personal life In 1962 he wed Ann Elizabeth née Worsfold divorced 1986 and in 1993 he married his long term partner of 25 years during which time he had 3 children, Pamela Mary née Inder.Who's Who, 2023, p. 266.
Boylan was passionate about music, especially choral and operatic. He was a member of the choir at Holy Cross, Leicester.See Boylan's article: "More than Rossini's Stabat Mater: The 19th Century Music and Musicians of the Holy Cross Priory, Leicester. Reference is made to the Holy Cross choir and Boylan's membership. He combined his love of music with that of research. He organised through the Rotary Club a musical event around his discovery of a Mrs Austin who became a successful singer in the United States: "Finding Leicester's Mrs Austin ... America’s First International Prima Donna", held at Leicester's Unitarian Chapel on 29 March 2019.See Finding Leicester's Mrs Austin on Facebook. The following year he published a learned article about the little-known Tudor composer Hugh Aston, some of whose work survived the almost complete destruction of manuscripts in the Catholic tradition during the English Reformation.See Bibliography: Essays and reviews.
A lifelong interest in oenology was first aroused when he worked for a wine merchant while a student at Hull.
Boylan died on 8 February 2024, at the age of 84..Printed in the Guardian of 18 June 2024, Journal section, p. 11.
Honours Order of Danica Hrvatska
In 1996, the Republic of Croatia bestowed on him the Order of Danica Hrvatska, a high-ranking medal awarded for cultural achievements.See Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society, "Patrick John Boylan Esq. B Sc FGS FMA MBIM 1981–82". See also statement in the Croatian official gazette Narodne Novine. Boylan is no. 25 on the list of recipients. The medal bears a portrait of Marko Marulić, the Croatian Renaissance humanist.
With three others in 2012 he won the Advocate Award of the International Institute of Conservation for their exceptional work to establish and sustain the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS).Known as the "Cultural Red Cross", the ICBS was set up in 1996. See ICBS ICBS Advocate Award, accessed 24 February 2024.
In 2023 he was awarded the Moore medal by the Yorkshire Geological Society for services to geology."Awarded as an acknowledgement of services to geology in the north of England", this medal is awarded only every few years or so. See Yorkshire Geological Society website page of awards. In the same year he was awarded the Felix Whitham medal of the Hull Geological Society.See HGS website.The award was made for Boylan's "continued efforts to share his interest in local geology especially the Quaternary, in particular his recent talks about Kirkdale Cave and the Neanderthals".
Honorary positions Fellow of the Museums Association (awarded 1972)Who's Who, 2023, p. 267. Fellow of the Geological Society (awarded 1973) Fellow of the British Institute of Management (now the Chartered Management Institute) (awarded 1990) Freeman, City of London (1991) Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters (from 1991)
Writings His contribution to the study of museology and cultural preservation both tangible and intangible was substantial and, as outlined in the foreword to his UNESCO reassessment of the 1954 Hague Convention,Review of Convention on Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (The Hague Convention of 1954). his especial concern for cultural conservation began with his childhood memories of war-damaged Hull. About the convention itself his conclusion was: "The problem is essentially one of failure in the application of the Convention and Protocol rather than of inherent defects in the international instruments themselves."See also Boylan's article in the Guardian "The US could have saved Iraq's cultural heritage"
Bibliography Books Boylan, Patrick J., with illustrations by Barbara J. Pyrah, Ice Age in Yorkshire and Humberside. York: Yorkshire Museum, 1977 No ISBN; LC : GB78-09533 Boylan, Patrick J. (ed.): The Falconer Papers, Forres. Forres, Murrayshire: Falconer Museum, 1977 No ISBN LC : 82132841 //r93