Colville Barclay

Sir Colville Herbert Sanford Barclay, 14th Baronet (7 May 1913 – 1 September 2010) was a British naval officer, painter and botanist whose career spanned amphibious landings and commando operations off the coast of France during the Second World War, having his paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy, publishing reference works about the flora of Crete and taking commissions to obtain plant samples from across the world for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Life

Colville Barclay was born in 1913 in London to Sir Colville Adrian de Rune Barclay, a diplomat, and Sarita (née Ward), daughter of the sculptor and explorer Herbert Ward.

He attended Eton College and Trinity College, Oxford where he studied PPE, taking courses part-time at the Ruskin School of Art. In 1930 he inherited the Barclay baronetcy after the death of his uncle, Sir Robert Barclay, 13th Baronet, In 1937 joined the diplomatic corps before joining the Royal Navy in 1941 during the Second World War. He was deployed throughout the conflict in small boats operating in commando operations along the French coast, and left the Navy in 1946 as a lieutenant commander.^[1]

After the war, Barclay took over management of the family's large investment portfolio, which provided enough income for him to be able to focus on his interest in art. Operating from a studio at his home, first in London then in Denham and subsequently Pitshill, Barclay experimented widely with his art and was exhibited at the Royal Academy and in many other places. A number of his artworks were purchased by public galleries, although he had no necessity to sell. It was not until he was in his nineties that Barclay claimed that he had finally been able to paint in the manner he wished.^[1]

Aside from his art and business interests, Barclay was a keen botanist, his work focusing initially on the island of Crete. He contributed a chapter to the 1980 guide Flowers of Greece and the Balkans and subsequently published his own work Crete: Checklist of the Vascular Plants in 1986. He collected many plants in the course of his research and as a result was asked by Desmond Meikle to procure samples for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, initially in Turkey but later from many countries around the globe. Barclay was also an advocate of homeopathic medicine and spent forty years on the board of the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in London.^[1]

He married Rosamund Elliott in 1949 and had three children. Following his death on 1 September 2010, his baronetcy passed to his eldest son.^[1]

Regnal titles
Preceded by Sir Robert Barclay, 13th Baronet	Baronet of Pierston 1930–2010	Succeeded by Sir Robert Barclay, 15th Baronet

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Sir Colville Barclay, Bt". The Daily Telegraph. 23 September 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8021278/Sir-Colville-Barclay-Bt.html. Retrieved 23 September 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Barclay, Colville
Alternative names	Barclay, Colville Herbert Sanford
Short description	British painter, botanist and naval officer
Date of birth	7 May 1913
Place of birth	London, England, UK
Date of death	1 September 2010
Place of death