Charles Handley-Read

Charles Harry Ralph Handley-Read (4 April 1916 – 17 October 1971) was an architectural writer and collector and the first serious 20th-century student of the work of William Burges, "a pioneer in Burges studies who was the first to assess the historical brilliance of Burges as gesamtkunstwerk architect and designer."

Life and works Handley-Read was born in Steyning, Sussex in 1916 to a father, Harry Handley Read (1870–1935), who was a magazine illustrator and military artist and a mother Eva Handley Read (1878–1965). who, beside being one of the first qualified female doctors and dental surgeons was a militant suffragette. In the thirties, he went up to St Catharine's College, Cambridge to read architecture, and upon graduation became art master at his old school, Bryanston. His career was interrupted by the Second World War during which, as a conscientious objector, he worked at the epileptic colony at Lingfield, developing art therapy for children. His wife Lavinia killed herself on 9 December of the same year. These events shocked their friends; the architectural historian Mark Girouard, who was close to them both, wrote, "they loved each other, had enough money, a pleasant home, plenty of friends, and had achieved something remarkable."

In an article he wrote in Country Life in March 1972, Girouard described his visits to their London home to view their collection. Of Charles and Lavinia, he recalled "two highly strung, vulnerable and complicated people who for 18 years had supported each other". Their collection of Victorian artefacts was broken up at sale. Many pieces were bought by major museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, as well as private collectors. The largest part of the collection to stay together was the 200 plus pieces purchased by The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford, including William Burges's own bed and dressing table.

Handley-Read's notes on William Burges were passed to Joseph Mordaunt Crook and became the basis of his seminal work on Burges, William Burges and the High Victorian Dream. The book received very positive reviews and was instrumental in establishing Burges's rehabilitation. A rare criticism is contained in a review written by Anthony Symondson in 1982. Symondson's critique relates not to Burges, but rather to Crook's portrait of Handley-Read; "those of us who knew (him) do not find him in Dr Crook's prelude, however cleverly written and closely researched."