Sidney J. A. Churchill

Sidney John Alexander Churchill (1 March 186211 January 1921), often referred to as Sidney J. A. Churchill, was a British diplomat, art connoisseur and author.

In 1908 he married Stella Myers who qualified as a doctor at Girton College, Cambridge and went on to become a writer and lecturer on health questions, and a strong supporter of the Save the Children Fund. She was also a local councillor who represented South East Southwark on the London County Council.

They had a son, George (born 1910), and a daughter, Ruth (191288), an architect who studied church architecture in pre-war Romania and then travelled extensively in Ethiopia. She documented her 20-year research in the local churches in Architecture of the Tigre, Ethiopia.

In 1880, at the age of 18, he joined the Persian Telegraph Department of the Indian Civil Service, where he gained an extensive knowledge of the Persian language and of Persia (modern-day Iran). then Consul in Surinam and French Guiana (1894), Palermo (18981909), and Naples (190912), then Consul-General in Naples (191218), and Lisbon (191821). In 1901, he was entrusted with the last message from Queen Victoria to Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans.

He died in Paris aged 59 on 11 January 1921 on his way to England, and is buried in Levallois-Perret Cemetery in Paris .

From 188094, he collected Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Hebrew manuscripts for the British Museum (Vol. IV of their Persian Catalogue of Manuscripts is almost entirely devoted to the 'Churchill Manuscripts'); collected art objects in Persia for the Victoria and Albert Museum under Gen. Sir R. M. Smith, RE, KCMG, and also researched the history of gold and silver work in Italy, especially the Two Sicilies. A bibliography of Benvenuto Cellini.

In the collection of the Getty Research Institute.