My friend Patrick Boylan, who has died aged 84, was a director of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, and later head of arts policy and management at City, University of London, helping to train a new generation of museum and other heritage professionals.
One of Patrick’s professional preoccupations was a wish to make sure that cultural artefacts and heritage were not lost as a result of upheaval, including war. Any such loss he described as “a loss for the whole of humanity”.
His work at international level on that topic culminated in a 248-page review for Unesco of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and in 1996 he became one of the four co-founders of Blue Shield, an NGO that tries to protect heritage in times of war or natural disaster.
Born in Hull to Mary (nee Haxby) and her husband, Francis, a master joiner, Patrick had early memories of the war-torn city and the destruction of his family home in the blitz. From childhood he revealed an inclination that later led to his career in museums: he collected stones and fossils, hoarding them under his bed until his father became worried lest the ceiling would collapse.
His secondary schooling took place at Marist college in Hull, and after gaining a degree in geography and geology at Hull University he stayed on for a teaching qualification in 1961. He taught geography at his old school until 1963, but then resolved to follow his desire to move into the museum world.
There was no formal training to enter the profession at the time, so he simply applied for a job as keeper of geology and natural history for Hull Museums – and was successful. It was there that he witnessed at first hand the consequences of the wartime destruction of Hull’s Central Museum in 1941.
When he became director of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter in 1968 he was quickly reminded of war’s impact on culture, as the laying waste of that city’s centre in the Baedeker raids of 1942 was still much in evidence all around him.
Appointed director of Leicester’s museums and art galleries in 1972, he was promoted two years later to be director of arts, museums and records for all Leicestershire and Rutland. Becoming increasingly aware of the need for better training of museum and other heritage professionals, he decided in 1990 to contribute to that effort by joining City, University of London, and remained there until his retirement in 2004.
In parallel with his museum career he devoted much energy to helping the Museums Association as an adviser, and later the International Council of Museums (ICOM) as chairman of various committees. He became centenary president of the Museums Association (1988-90) and a vice-president of ICOM (1992-98).
In retirement he continued his work for governments, museums and other cultural institutions, and became editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Intangible Heritage (2005-09).
He is survived by his second wife, Pamela (nee Inder), whom he married in 1993, their two sons, Matthew and John, and four sons, Andrew, Christopher, Mark and Peter, from his first marriage to Ann Worsfold, which ended in divorce.
