Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington

William Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington, Kt, FSA, FRGS (12 April 1856 – 19 April 1937), known between 1895 and 1931 as Sir Martin Conway, was an English art critic, politician, cartographer and mountaineer, who made expeditions in Europe as well as in South America and Asia.

For other people with the same name, see William Conway and Martin Conway.

The Right Honourable
The Lord Conway of Allington
Kt FSA FRGS
Conway in 1895
Member of Parliament for Combined English Universities
with H. A. L. Fisher (1918-1926)
and Eleanor Rathbone (1926-1931)
In office
28 December 1918 – 7 October 1931
Preceded byConstituency Established
Succeeded bySir Reginald Craddock
and Eleanor Rathbone
Personal details
Born(1856-04-12)12 April 1856
Rochester, Kent, England
Died19 April 1937(1937-04-19) (aged 81)
London, England
ChildrenAgnes Conway
OccupationArt critic, politician, mountaineer

Conway occupied several university positions and from 1918 to 1931 was a representative of the Combined English Universities as a conservative member of the House of Commons.

In 1872 he took up mountain climbing and went on expeditions to Spitsbergen from 1896 to 1897 and the Andes of Bolivia in 1898. He is an author of books on art and exploration, which include Mountain Memories (1920), Art Treasures of Soviet Russia (1925), and Giorgione as a Landscape Painter (1929).[1]

Background and education

Conway was born at Rochester, England, on 12 April 1856, the son of Reverend William Conway, who later became rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster.[2][3] He was the youngest of three children, having two older sisters, Elizabeth Ann (1852-1916) and Martha (1854-1938).[2] He was educated at Repton and Trinity College, Cambridge,[4] where he studied mathematics and became a close friend of Karl Pearson. It is also at Cambridge that he met Henry Bradshaw, then a librarian; Karl Pearson;[5] and John Ruskin, who introduced Conway to art and the Alps.[6] He became interested in woodcuts, engraving and early printed books; his History of the Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century was published in 1884.

Mountaineering

Conway was a member of the Alpine Club, of which he was president from 1902 to 1904.[7]

In 1892, in the course of an exploring and mountaineering expedition undertaken under the auspices of the Royal Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association, he made an ascent of a subsidiary summit of Baltoro Kangri, claiming a world altitude record with a height of 23,000 ft (7,010 m). However, subsequent measurements have revised his height to 22,322 ft (6,804 m).[8]

In 1896–97, accompanied by J. W. Gregory and others, he explored the interior of Spitsbergen, the first expedition to cross the mainland of the island.[9][10] The following year he explored and surveyed the Bolivian Andes, climbing "Sorata" (known today as Ancohuma, 21,086 ft / 6,427 m) and Illimani (21,122 ft / 6,438 m). He also attempted Aconcagua (22,831 ft / 6,959 m), stopping short of the summit by 50 feet; and explored Tierra del Fuego, attempting Sarmiento.[11] At the Paris Exhibition of 1900, he received the gold medal for mountain surveys,[12] and in 1905 won a Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his Spitsbergen exploration.[13]

He served as president of the Alpine Club from 1902 to 1904, and became the first president of The Alpine Ski Club at its inaugural meeting in 1908,[14] serving until 1911. Conway Island is named for him.[15]

In 1924, Conway evaluated evidence from the 1924 British Mountaineering Expedition and believed George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had summitted Mt. Everest.[16]

Academic career
Conway's Karakoram map showing the environs of the Hispar Glacier, based on his 1892 survey

From 1884 to 1887 Conway was a Professor of Art at University College, Liverpool; and from 1901 to 1904 he was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University. He was knighted in 1895 for his efforts in mapping 5,180 square km of the Karakoram Range in the Himalayas three years earlier.

In 1889 he published a book concerning his research on Albrecht Dürer. He was assisted in this by the polymath Lina Eckenstein who was the sister of a fellow mountaineer.[17]

During the early 1900s, he was active within the Society of Antiquaries of London. He gave many presentations at meetings and served multiple terms on its council, once in 1916–17,[18] and again from 1918–22 as a vice president of the society.[19]

He also stood as president of the Kent Archaeological Society for some time in the 1920s and 1930s. He became president of the society in 1923,[20] and announced in 1930 his wish to step down, citing declining health, although he continued as president after a request by the council.[21] He again announced his retirement and stepped down in 1936, though agreed to continue as a vice president.[20]

Conway was an art collector; he began collecting in 1887.[22] Conway was the first Director-General of the Imperial War Museum and a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1922 to 1937.[23] His photograph collection formed the basis of the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.[24] He was also responsible for the restoration of Allington Castle.

Political career

Conway had been involved in politics for some time, consorting with both major parties allegedly in pursuit of a knighthood and a barony; he received both. He was mentioned as a possible Liberal candidate for Wolverhampton South in early 1900, but withdrew his candidature 'owing to domestic circumstances'.[25] He was elected Unionist Member of Parliament for the Combined English Universities in 1918, serving until 1931, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Conway of Allington, of Allington in the County of Kent, in the Dissolution Honours.[26][27]

He died in London on 19 April 1937.[28] The title became extinct on his death.[29]

Works

Scholarly works
  • History of the Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century, 1884
  • Early Flemish Artists, 1887
  • The Literary Remains of Albrecht Dürer, 1889
  • The Dawn of Art in the Ancient World, 1891, dealing with Chaldean, Assyrian and Egyptian art
  • Early Tuscan Art, 1902
  • The Crowd in Peace and War, 1915
  • Art Treasures of Soviet Russia, 1925
  • Giorgione as a Landscape Painter, 1929

Mountaineering and travel works

Autobiography
  • Episodes in a Varied Life, 1932
  • The Sport of Collecting, 1914

References
  1. "Conway Of Allington, William Martin Conway, 1st Baron". The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed – via Encyclopedia.com.
  2. "Conway, (William) Martin, Baron Conway of Allington". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32536. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. "CONWAY, Sir (William) Martin". Who's Who. 59: 373. 1907.
  4. "Conway, William Martin (CNWY875WM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. Radeska, Tijana (10 May 2017). "Sir William Martin Conway - Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University and the first mountaineer to climb Baltoro Kangri". The Vintage News. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  6. Stansky, Peter (1976). "Art, Industry, and the Aspirations of William Martin Conway". Victorian Studies. 19 (4): 465–484. ISSN 0042-5222. JSTOR 3826385.
  7. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Conway, Sir William Martin" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  8. Curran, Jim (1995). K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-340-66007-2.
  9. Flett, John S. (1932). "Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S". Nature. 129 (3269): 930–931. doi:10.1038/129930a0. ISSN 1476-4687.
  10. Jones, Mary Katherine (2014). "From explorer to expert: Sir William Martin Conway's 'delightful sense of something accomplished'". Polar Record. 50 (3): 319–329. doi:10.1017/S0032247413000739. ISSN 0032-2474. ResearchGate:271633327.
  11. Unsworth, Walt (1993). Hold the Heights. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 197. ISBN 0-340-33913-6.
  12. Warner, Charles Dudley, ed. (1910). "Conway, Sir William Martin". Warner's Dictionary of Authors Ancient and Modern. Werner Company. p. 604.
  13. "Medals and Awards". Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  14. Russel, C. A. (1972). "One hundred years ago" (PDF). Alpine Journal. 77: 215–218.
  15. Hattersley-Smith, G. (1988). "Mountaineers and Skiers in British Antarctic Territory Place-names" (PDF). Alpine Journal. 93: 184–190.
  16. "Mount Everest Expedition". Warwick & Warwickshire Advertiser & Leamington Gazette. 26 July 1924 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. Johnson, Penelope D. (2005). "Lina Eckenstein (1857-1931)". In Chance, Jane (ed.). Women Medievalists and the Academy. The University of Wisconsin Press. p. 58. ISBN 0-299-20750-1. LCCN 2004025225.
  18. Society of Antiquaries of London. Proceedings Of The Society Of Antiquaries Of London. 2nd Series. Vol. 28. p. 218.
  19. Multiple sources:
  20. Kent Archaeological Society (1937). "Annual Report and Accounts for the Year 1936". Archaeologia Cantiana. 49: xxxvii–xxxvii.
  21. Kent Archaeological Society (1931). "Annual Report and Accounts for the Year 1930". Archaeologia Cantiana. 43: xli–li.
  22. "Who made the Conway Library?". Digital Media. The Courtauld. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  23. "(William) Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington". National Portrait Gallery.
  24. Higgon, Katharine (2006). "Persistence of Antiquity" (PDF). The Courtauld. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2021.
  25. "Election intelligence". The Times. No. 36061. London. 9 February 1900. p. 10.
  26. "No. 33772". The London Gazette. 17 November 1931. p. 7409.
  27. "No. 33778". The London Gazette. 8 December 1931. p. 7905.
  28. Doubleday, H. A.; De Walden, Lord Howard, eds. (1940). The Complete Peerage. Vol. XIII. London: The St. Catherine Press Ltd. p. 500 – via FamilySearch.
  29. Beamish, David (ed.). "Chronological list 1901–1950". United Kingdom Peerage Creations. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  30. "Climbing and Exploration in the Karakoram-Himalayas. Maps and Scientific Reports. By W. M. Conway. (Fisher Unwin.)". The Athenaeum (Review) (3506): 20. 5 January 1895.
  31. Morgan, E. D. (1895). "Mr. Conway in the Himalayas". Scottish Geographical Magazine. 11 (1): 17–19. doi:10.1080/00369229508732747. ISSN 0036-9225.
  32. "The Bolivian Andes: a Record of Climbing and Exploration in the Years 1898 and 1899. By Sir Martin Conway. (Harper and Brothers.)". The Athenaeum (Review) (3849): 159–160. 3 August 1901.
  33. Church, George Earl (1901). "Review of The Bolivian Andes". The Geographical Journal. 18 (6): 612–614. doi:10.2307/1775366. ISSN 0016-7398. JSTOR 1775366.
  34. "Aconcagua and Tierra del Fuego. By Sir Martin Conway. (Cassell & Co.)". The Athenaeum (Review) (3911): 477–478. 11 October 1902.
  35. "Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century. By Sir W. Martin Conway. (Hakluyt Society.)". The Athenaeum (Review) (4044): 522–523. 29 April 1905.
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