James Laurence Howgego, B.A., A.L.A.

James Howgego was born on 19 November 1912 and educated at St Joseph's Academy, Lewisham, then a tough Christian Brothers' boarding school. At the age of 24 he began work at Guildhall Library, in the City of London, and spent the rest of his career there. Then, as now, the library specialized in London history and possessed an unrivalled collection of London prints and watercolours which kindled Howgego's enthusiasm for art and topography. On the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and, after some hair-raising experiences, ended his service as Second Officer on oil tankers. Demobilised in 1946, he returned to Guildhall Library to find that the art gallery had been destroyed during the blitz and a temporary structure erected. He was put in charge of the gallery's permanent collection of paintings and the library's collection of prints, drawings, maps and ephemera, both of which he administered single-handed until, in 1965, Ralph Hyde, F.S.A., was appointed to assist him. Meanwhile, the temporary gallery had housed, among others, the City of London Art Exhibition and the Society of Marine Artists annual exhibition, in which Howgego regularly exhibited his own paintings. In the mid-1950s he inaugurated a series of ambitious loan exhibitions, notably `Hogarth the Londoner' (1957), `Canaletto in England' (1959), and `Canaletto and his Influence on London Artists' (1965), while, on a personal level, studying for a B.A. at Birkbeck, the History of Art Diploma at the Courtauld and learning to speak Spanish fluently. A pillar of the Library Association, Howgego served as treasurer of its Reference, Special and Information Section for many years and produced a valuable booklet for it on illustration resources in the Greater London area. He compiled with Ida Darlington, archivist of the old London County Council, a definitive carto-bibliography, Printed Maps of London c. 1553-1850 (1964, revised 1982) and wrote The City of London through Artists' Eyes (1969) which sold out within months. Howgego retired in 1975, moving from Streatham to Bexhill-on-Sea, where he wrote two popular books for Batsford, The Victorian and Edwardian City of London from Old PhotographsLondon in the 20s and 30s from Old Photographs (1978). He died on 8 August 1995.