Rodney Searight

Rodney Gerald Searight (8 September 1909 – 28 May 1991) was a British art collector, oil executive and artist. Searight lived and worked in the Middle East, primarily Egypt, for many years, and collected thousands of mostly European artworks connected to the area (described by the art history term Orientalism). In 1973 Searight's collection was described as "what is today probably the finest privately-owned collection of Middle Eastern art anywhere." His collection was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1985, where it is known as the Searight Collection.

Early life Searight's parents were Dorothy Gibson-Craig, the founder of the Brooke Foundation, and Lt.-Col. James Gerald Lamb Searight, of the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment). They married in 1905. Searight was the oldest child, born in 1909, with younger sister Pamela born in 1915 and younger brother John Philip Searight born in 1917. His parents divorced in 1926, and that same year his mother married Major-General Geoffrey Francis Heremon Brooke, C.B., D.S.O., M.C., of the 16th/5th Lancers.

Searight was educated at Wellington School, Somerset.

Searight Collection Searight began collecting quite late in his career, in 1959. His collection spanned drawings, engravings, watercolours, prints and books, all with the common theme of the Middle East: Orientalist art. He considered the foundation of his collection to be a watercolour of Cairo by David Roberts, bought in June 1959 for £52 10s. Denis Dighton, Amedeo Preziosi and Godfrey Thomas Vigne, among others.

Searight's collection was housed in his Kensington flat.

Searight's daughter Ann donated a small collection of ceramics collected by Searight to the British Museum. Sibyl died in 1967. In 1975 Searight married Theresa Clay, and they remained married until Searight's death in 1991.

From 1963 onwards Searight was involved with the Royal Geographical Society, in time being elected a Fellow.

In December 1972 Searight, then aged 62, was a passenger on the hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 708, and was injured during the attack by the hijackers. Searight was part of a group described as 'elderly British birdwatchers' in a 2024 article about the hijacking; the attack with added birdwatching was the subject of a newspaper cartoon.