William Henry St John Hope

Sir William Henry St John Hope (1854–1919) was an English antiquary.

Life West front of Rochester Cathedral, before the recent "restoration" Hope was born in Derby, the son of the Reverend William Hope, vicar of Saint Peter's Church. He was educated at Derby Grammar School and entered Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1877, graduating B.A. 1881, M.A. 1884, and Litt.D. 1912.

On leaving Cambridge, Hope became a master at Rochester Grammar School in Kent, a post he continued to hold until his appointment in 1885 as Assistant Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. During this period he carried out the study of Rochester Cathedral Church and monastic buildings, which was published in Archaeologia Cantiana (1898).

Shield of the arms of Sir Humphrey Littlebury, from his effigy at Holbeach in Lincolnshire. From Hope (1913) Hope was interested in archaeology and heraldry since boyhood, and his earliest works were on the subject of the monumental brasses of English churches. His major work was his Architectural History of Windsor Castle, begun in 1893 with the approval of Queen Victoria, and completed twenty years later in 1913, an undertaking for which he was knighted. His other works include Stall-plates of Knights of the Garter, Heraldry for Craftsmen and Designers and A Grammar of English Heraldry. and in drawing the plans of Lewes Priory in 1906. He commissioned the Leeds Camera Club led by Godfrey Bingley to take photographs of Kirkstall Abbey for his book Architectural Description of Kirkstall Abbey, published in 1907, and undertook excavations there. Between 1909 and 1915, he participated in the first major excavation of the hillfort at Old Sarum, along with William Hawley and Duncan Montgomerie.

Hope married Myrrha Fullerton in 1885, and they had a son before her death in 1903. His second wife was Mary Jeffries, whom he married in 1910. He died at his home in Great Shelford near Cambridge, following a series of heart attacks.

Selected publications

A Series of Ninety Full-Sized Coloured Facsimiles with Descriptive Notes and Historical Introductions.