Cyril Aldred

Cyril Aldred FRSE FSA Scot (19 February 1914 – 23 June 1991) was an English Egyptologist, art historian and author.

Early life

Cyril Aldred was born in Fulham, London, the son of Frederick Aldred and Lilian Ethel Underwood (Aldred) the 6th of 7 children (5 boys, 2 girls).

Aldred attended Sloane School, in Chelsea, and studied English at King's College London, and then art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art. While a student, he met Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered the Tutankhamen tomb, in 1932. Carter invited Aldred to work with him in Egypt, but Aldred instead pursued a university education. He graduated from the Courtauld Institute in 1936.

In 1937, he became an assistant curator at the Royal Scottish Museum, in Edinburgh, where he worked for the remainder of his professional life, rising to become Keeper of Art & Archaeology (1961–74).

In 1938 he married Jessie Kennedy Morton (b. 1909), a physiotherapist. During World War II, Aldred served in the RAF, returning to Edinburgh in 1946, to undertake a serious study of Egyptology.