Papers of Dr Francis C Eeles, antiquarian, Dunster, Somerset, England

Description Papers of Dr Francis C Eeles, antiquarian, Dunster, Somerset, England

Date 1876 to 1954

Collection Papers of Dr Francis C Eeles, antiquarian, Dunster, Somerset, England

Catalogue Number 551 49

Category All Other

Scope and Content The collection comprises photographs, postcards and a small number of sketches, principally of Scottish medieval ecclesiastical subjects, buildings and sculpture, and a few images of early medieval Pictish sculpture. Consistent with Eeles’ interests, many of the photographs are of furnishings and other details, illustrative of liturgical practice. None of the photographic images are dated. The sketches are from a dismembered sketchbook, 1891, and include views and details of churches, etc. at: Beauly, Brechin, Cowie, Durris, Fortrose, Maryculter and Old Stonehaven.

Archive History Eighteen sketches and details of mediaeval architecture including Cowie Church and Arbuthnott Church, Kincardineshire and the Priory Church, Beauly, Inverness-shire, 1890-1900 by Dr Francis Eeles, were donated to RCAHMS by Judith D Scott, 1980 (see Manuscripts MS/119, Acc No 1980/17). In addition RCAHMS holds a number of photographic images by Eeles, for which no provenance is known. These may have been donated to RCAHMS by Eeles himself, as there are references to his donation of photographs in the early RCAHMS Minute Books (LM Ferguson, pers. comm.).

System of Arrangement The negatives and prints were catalogued according to the then prevailing County system, and were dispersed among the general collections. Not all of the images were mounted for the open access photograph boxes, and a number of the negative envelopes contain unmounted prints.

Related Material A body of material relating to Eeles’ work on Scottish bells was left to Ranald WM Clouston on the former’s death. This now forms part of the Ranald WM Clouston Collection (Acc No 2002/200), held by RCAHMS. A number of other photographs are included in the Hay and Henderson Collection, held by RCAHMS. A series of his drawings of railway engines, made as a boy, were in the Science Museum, London. See also material listed on the National Register of Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=P9040

Administrative History Francis Carolus Eeles was born in London, 28 February 1876. His family moved to Somerset when he was six or seven, and in his mid-teens, to Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, in both cases establishing associations that survived into later life. As a boy he developed an interest in ecclesiastical architecture and ecclesiology, and now set about compiling an inventory of the medieval bells of the Kincardineshire, which was published in 1897. Eeles lacked the necessary mathematical skills to matriculate as a student, yet attended lectures as an outside student. His involvement in ecclesiastical matters expanded: in a voluntary capacity he served as honorary Librarian of Aberdeen Diocesan Library, and in 1903 was ordained as a Reader in the dioceses of Aberdeen and Orkney. In 1908 he married Mary Hall Wolfe. Eeles had assisted with the early work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in a voluntary capacity. On A O Curle’s resignation as Secretary in 1913, Eeles applied for the post, and also for the post of Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Scotland, but was unsuccessful in both. In 1914 he delivered the Rhind lectures, on The Liturgy and Ceremonial of the Medieval Church in Scotland. After living in Edinburgh for a period, he moved to Keswick, in the Lake District, early in the war. Declared unfit for war service, in 1916 Eeles returned to London, settling in Hampstead. He joined the Victoria and Albert Museum on a temporary post, working to catalogue material in the Library and Department of Textiles. He contributed to the establishment of Diocesan Advisory Committees, and after the first meeting of the Central Council for the Care of Churches in 1921 became increasingly engaged in its advisory work. Having served as Honorary Secretary of the Central Committee from 1917 to 1924, he thereafter served as Secretary of the Central Council. In 1937 he received a Lambeth degree of Doctor or Letters, and also the OBE. With the outbreak of war in 1939 the Council was evacuated to Eeles’ holiday house at Dunster, Somerset. To counter the threat of bomb damage, Eeles arranged for the evacuation, likewise, of church records and treasures to the West Country. An appeal for photographs of churches to form a record for the Council in case of damage met with a strong response. He was an active member of numerous ecclesiological, artistic and other learned societies, and published widely. He died 17 August 1954. Most of the biographical information is derived from Judith D G Scott’s memoir of Eeles, published in his posthumous King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Studies Number 136, 1956. IF, 26 November 2008

Finding Aids See NMRS Inventory 132.

Accruals No further accruals are expected.

Accession Number 1980/17

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