Guy Francis Laking
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was an English art historian and the first keeper of the London Museum
London Museum
The London Museum was inaugurated on 21 March 1912 by King George V with Queen Mary and Princess Mary and Prince George at Kensington Palace. It opened for public visitation on 8 April, admitting more than 13.000 visitors during the day. Two years later the collections were removed to Lancaster...
from before its opening until his death.
Life
He was educated at Westminster SchoolWestminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
. He was interested in armour from an early age, as shows his essay The Sword of Joan of Arc, written when 10 years old. In 1891 he met the Baron de Cosson, then considered the foremost expert on arms and armour, an acquaintance that was influential to his career. Later he joined Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
as an art advisor; his first work was the sales catalogue of the Zschille collection, sold in January 1897. He then compiled catalogues for the Gurney
John Henry Gurney
John Henry Gurney was an English banker, amateur ornithologist, and Liberal Party politician.-Life:Gurney was the only son of Joseph John Gurney of Earlham Hall, Norwich, Norfolk. At the age of ten he was sent to a private tutor at Leytonstone near the Epping Forest, where he met Henry Doubleday,...
, Spiller, Breadalbane, Kennedy and North collections of arms and armour. In 1900 he was invited by the Governor of Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, Lord Grenfell
Francis Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell
Field Marshal Francis Wallace Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell, GCB, GCMG, PC was a British Army officer.-Military career:Francis Wallace Grenfell was descended from Pascoe Grenfell...
, to catalogue the antiquities there, the result was the book The Armoury of The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1902 King Edward VII created the post of Keeper of the King's Armoury at Windsor for him. Besides, he was Inspector of the Armoury at the Wallace Collection, and in 1911 became the first Keeper of the London Museum
London Museum
The London Museum was inaugurated on 21 March 1912 by King George V with Queen Mary and Princess Mary and Prince George at Kensington Palace. It opened for public visitation on 8 April, admitting more than 13.000 visitors during the day. Two years later the collections were removed to Lancaster...
, where he was tasked with acquiring, cataloguing and arranging the collection. He lived in London, on Avenue Road, in his house Meyrick Lodge named after Samuel Meyrick, the founder of English armour studies. He was a Vice President of the Meyrick Society, founded by collectors and historians of arms and armour. He died from a heart attack.
Family
He was the son of King Edward VII's Physician in Ordinary Sir Francis Laking. He married Beatrice Ida Barker (25 September 1873 - 23 November 1923), and they had two children, Joan (*1900) and Sir Guy Francis William Laking, 3rd Baronet (3 January 1904 - 4 August 1930), whose photographs, taken in 1920 and 1921 at Bassano LtdAlexander Bassano
Alexander Bassano was the leading high society portrait photographer in Victorian London.He was the second youngest child of Clemente Bassano, originally a fishmonger of Cranbourne Street, later an oilman and Italian warehouseman of Jermyn Street, London. He opened his first studio in 1850 in...
, are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. On the death of the 3rd baronet, the baronetcy became extinct.
Recent Controversy
In 2004, NorwegianNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
biographer Tor Bomann-Larsen
Tor Bomann-Larsen
Tor Bomann-Larsen is a Norwegian illustrator, children's writer, non-fiction writer and novelist. He started his career as a satirical illustrator for various newspapers, including Friheten, Ny tid, Dagbladet, Nationen and Arbederbladet...
put forward the hypothesis that King Olav V of Norway
Olav V of Norway
Olav V was the king of Norway from 1957 until his death. A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Olav was born in the United Kingdom as the son of King Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Maud of Norway...
was not the biological son of King Haakon VII
Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...
, but his mother, Queen Maud
Maud of Wales
Princess Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway as spouse of King Haakon VII. She was a member of the British Royal Family as the youngest daughter of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark and granddaughter of Queen Victoria and also of Christian IX of Denmark. She was the younger sister of George V...
, had been, in 1902 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, artificially inseminated by Sir Francis Laking, a Physician to the Royal Household.
In October 2004, in the second Volume of Folket, his history of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud, the author Tor Bomann-LarsenTor Bomann-LarsenTor Bomann-Larsen is a Norwegian illustrator, children's writer, non-fiction writer and novelist. He started his career as a satirical illustrator for various newspapers, including Friheten, Ny tid, Dagbladet, Nationen and Arbederbladet...
presents evidence that in October 1902 then-Princess Maud stayed (secretly) in a LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Hospital under the care of Sir Francis Henry Laking, 1st Baronet, physician-in-ordinary and surgeon-apothecary to King Edward VII of the United KingdomEdward VII of the United KingdomEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
(Princess Maud's father), and that during this secret hospital stay, Sir Francis artificially inseminated Princess Maud, who gave birth to Prince Alexander (the future King Olav V) some nine months later. Mr. Bomann-Larsen further implies, but does not directly state, that the sperm donor was Sir Francis's son, Guy Francis Laking.
(William Addams Reitwiesner
William Addams Reitwiesner
William Addams Reitwiesner was a genealogist who traced the ancestry of United States political figures, European royalty and celebrities.- Biography :...
)
In March 2005, Odd Arvid Storsveen, a Historian at the University of OsloUniversity of OsloThe University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
, published a review of Mr. Bomann-Larsen's book in Historisk Tidsskrift. In this review, Mr. Storsveen claims he can't find adequate sourcing for Mr. Bomann-Larsen's "hypothesis" about King Olav V's paternity.
(William Addams Reitwiesner)
Publications
- The Sword of Joan of Arc (1885)
- The Armoury of The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (1902)
- The Armoury of Windsor Castle: European Section (1904)
- The Furniture of Windsor Castle (1905)
- The Sèvres Porcelain of Buckingham Palace (1907)
- Catalogue of the European Armour and Arms in the Wallace Collection at Hertford House (1910)
- A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries (1919)