W. G. Collingwood

William Gershom Collingwood (; 6 August 1854 – 1 October 1932) was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading. A long-term resident of Coniston, Cumbria, he was President of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society (1920-32) and the Lake Artists' Society.

Life William Gershom Collingwood was born in Liverpool, the son of William Collingwood RWS. He produced hundreds of sketches and watercolours during this time (e.g. an imagined meeting of the medieval Althing),

Collingwood was a member of the Viking Club and served as its president. In 1902 he co-authored again with Jón Stefánsson the first translation it published, a translation of Kormáks saga entitled, The Life and Death of Kormac the Skald. His study of Norse and Anglican archaeology made him widely recognised as a leading authority. Following Ruskin's death Collingwood continued to help for a while with secretarial work at Brantwood, but in 1905 went to University College, Reading (now the University of Reading) and served as professor of fine art from 1907 until 1911.

Collingwood joined the Admiralty intelligence division at the outbreak of the First World War. In 1919, he returned to Coniston and continued his writing with a history of the Lake District and perhaps his most important work, Northumbrian Crosses of the pre-Norman Age. He was a great climber and swimmer, and a tireless walker into advanced age. In 1927 he experienced the first of a series of strokes. His wife died in 1928, followed by Collingwood himself in 1932. He was buried in Coniston. However the archive of family papers, the Collingwood Collection, is now held at the Special Collections and Archives department of the Cardiff University Library.

The largest part of Collingwood's paintings of Iceland are held in the National Museum in Reykjavik: other locations include Abbot Hall Art Gallery.

Possibly Collingwood's most lasting legacy was his influence on his son R. G. Collingwood, the philosopher and historian.