in 1994. Rothschild’s friend Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover became chairman of the trust and he, in turn, persuaded his wealthy friends to become trustees. They raised funds and a lottery-supported campaign led to the restoration and sympathetic extension by architect, Rick Mather. At the same time, the gallery was developing a social arm that has since been imitated by much bigger museums. Giles left Dulwich and the gallery in 1996, before the much-praised remodelling was complete, to become a traveller, independent curator, writer and lecturer. The gallery was reopened in 2000, after an 18-month refurbishment and has gone on to become the intellectually active and socially pioneering museum it still is today. After leaving the gallery, Giles won the 2001 McKitterick prize for his first novel, ‘The Long Afternoon’, about the end of the aristocratic British expat community in the South of France. He also wrote three other novels, including ‘The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner’, which was a satire of museum culture in Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia, published in 2002. He had been involved with Attingham Summer School, an intellectually rigorous, three-week course in historic architecture, since 1980, became a director of the school in 1994 and remained one until 2003. He was an associate lecturer at the Courtauld Institute from 2002 and an adviser to, or trustee of, numerous leading art organisations, including the Royal Academy, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the National Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund. These roles were largely unpaid and he was a shining example of the civil society in action. Among the exhibitions he organised
was Art Treasures of England: The Regional Collections, held at the Royal Academy (1998-99), which brought masterpieces to the capital to remind the London-centric art world that the provinces are not a cultural desert. Giles was driven and his life was full of intellectual curiosity and generosity towards his many friends. He loved travelling, had recently been to China, but died suddenly of a heart attack. He is survived by his partner, Joseph Whoriskey, and his brother William.
his retirement in 1986.
In 1948 Peter had married Sheila Leary, whom he had met through the church they both attended. The newly-weds moved to a small house in Sidcup, Kent, where their eldest child, Sarah was born. They moved back to central South London where two more children arrived, sons Andrew and Timothy. Both boys followed in Peter’s footsteps and came to Dulwich, while Sarah went to James Allen’s Girls’ School. In the 1970s Peter and his wife moved to Seaford, East Sussex, due to Sheila’s ill-health. Sadly she died in 1981 and he moved back to London to share a flat in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, with daughter Sarah for ten years until she got married. Peter never re-married – Sheila was his one and only love. Even after retirement from work in 1986, he stayed on in London and became part-time secretary to a church in Central London, until his second retirement at the age of 80. This time, he left London again and moved to Bath to be nearer Sarah and her family. Peter had played tennis as a young adult before moving on to croquet at the Old College Tennis and Croquet Club in Dulwich. He was still playing croquet in Bath after his second retirement and also chaired the management committee of the retirement flats where he lived. Every Sunday he attended the local church down the road and then joined Sarah and her family for Sunday lunch and tea, and enjoyed seeing one of his granddaughters growing up. He had two other granddaughters but they both lived much further away in Lancaster. He remained living independently with support from Sarah until his death just 10 days after he had celebrated his 95th birthday, with full afternoon
This obiturary is based on several published obituaries/
Peter Christian Whitfield [1934-37] 07.03.1921 – 17.03.2016
Peter Whitfield was the son of a clergyman and lived with his
parents in a flat in Camberwell as an only child. He attended a small preparatory school run by two spinster ladies, and then went to Dulwich Prep before moving along the road to the College, where he was in Drake and very much enjoyed playing sport at the school. After leaving Dulwich, he joined Westminster Bank but WW2 soon began and he joined the Royal Marines. He spent most of the war in Australia, but had returned to Europe in time to be in command of a landing craft at the D Day landings. After the war he returned to Westminster Bank before joining a spinning company as their financial accountant. He then moved to become the Finance Director of Tessiers Ltd, a family firm of silversmiths in New Bond Street, London, remaining with them until
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