Peter van Geersdaele

Peter Charles van Geersdaele OBE was an English conservator. He is best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. From 1954 to around 1976 he was a conservator at the British Museum. In 1993 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

About Peter van Geersdaele in brief

Peter Charles van Geersdaele OBE was an English conservator. He is best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Among other work he oversaw the creation of a plaster cast of the ship impression. From 1954 to around 1976 he was a conservator at the British Museum. He retired in 1993, and during that year’s Birthday Honours was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of his services to museums. He studied at Hammersmith Technical College from 1946 to 1949. He then engaged in moulding and casting at the Victoria and Albert Museum until 1951. In 1954 he joined the British museum, rising to the position of senior conservation officer in the British and Medieval department. He later became an assistant chief of archaeology in the conservation division of the National Historic Sites of Canada for Parks Canada, and then the deputy head of the conservation department at the National Maritime Museum in London.

He also helped with excavations of the Longton Hall porcelain factory and the Broadstairs Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Other work at the museum included the 1964 removal of a thirteenth-century tile kiln from Clarendon Palace, and the 1973 restoration of fourteenth- century wallpaintings from St Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster Palace. In the early 1950s he served in the Royal Air Force. While stationed at RAF Binbrook, in Lincolnshire, he played football for Grimsby Town F. C., managed by Bill Shankly. After his discharge he had a trial with Queens Park Rangers F.C.

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