Ambrose Petrocokino

Ambrose Petrocokino (1864–1926) was a British business owner of Greek descent who was known as an avid traveller and collector of artefacts from India, China and Japan. He wrote two books describing his adventurous travels in South America and India. He also followed a military career, as a soldier in three different wars, including World War I.

Early life and education Ambrose Petrocokino was born on 20 January 1864 in Eldon Lodge, Bradford. He was the fifth child of an extended family of Greek émigrés who settled in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the mid-nineteenth century, following the Chios massacre and the dispersal of Greeks to western Europe to escape persecution under the Ottoman Empire.

His parents were Themistocles Pandia Petrocokino (1824–1900) and Merope Mavrogordato (1839–1912) both from Greece.

Ambrose attended Harrow School, an independent English boarding school. An exhibition mounted by the museum in 2020, entitled 'Animal: World Art Journeys', featured several of these striking and intricately carved pieces, including a number of Japanese netsuke.

Petrocokino died in 1926, and was buried in St Mary's Church in Purley in Berkshire.