ObituariesThe Times February 23, 2006
A. E. Werner
June 14, 1911 - January 21, 2006
Chemist who led the British Museum's study of the treasure and grave goods discovered at Sutton Hoo
TONY WERNER became Keeper of the Research Laboratory of the British Museum in 1959. At that time the department was concerned with the conservation of objects as well as fundamental research into the materials of antiquity and their dating, having one of the earliest radiocarbon dating facilities in Britain. Under his leadership the research laboratory carried out the detailed study of the regalia and all the other grave goods that had been found at Sutton Hoo.
Alfred Emil Anthony Werner was born in Dublin in 1911. He came from a family that was part Irish, part Alsatian French and seemed to have inherited the best qualities of all three nations. His grandfather left Alsace at the time of the Franco-Prussian War. His father became professor of chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin, and Tony Werner entered Trinity College in 1929.
He gained BA with first class honours, MSc and MA and was awarded a scholarship to the University of Freiberg im Breisgau where, in 1937, he obtained a DPhil in organic chemistry and was appointed to a lectureship at Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1948 Werner accepted a post as research chemist at the National Gallery, London, and thus began his association with the arts and museums that lasted for the remainder of his career. At the National Gallery he worked on the characteristics of resins and in developing the study of paint sections under the microscope. By showing that the stain on the teeth of the Piltdown skull was not natural, he played a part in the unmasking of the Piltdown forgery.
In 1954 Werner was appointed principal scientific officer under Dr H. J. Plenderleith at the Research Laboratory of the British Museum, becoming Keeper on the retirement of Dr Plenderleith. During his keepership he inaugurated a project to study the composition of copper alloys in antiquity. The results of the laboratory’s work on the Sutton Hoo find were eventually published by the British Museum in the four volumes of The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial.
Under Werner many of the great treasures of Ireland, such as the Tara brooch and the Ardagh Chalice were studied and conserved in the research laboratory. In 1958 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
In 1968 Maysie Webb (obituary, January 19, 2006) was appointed assistant director of the British Museum. The co-operation between them was one of the great successes of Werner’s keepership. With her support, the department rode safely over several financial crises and the work of the laboratory was not hampered by lack of equipment or staff.
Werner travelled widely, often for Unesco or the British Council and became President of the International Institute for the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works. He was a President of the Museums’ Association and for several years he also held the chair of chemistry at the Royal Academy Schools.
Werner took early retirement from the British Museum in order to head the newly formed Conservation Centre for the Pacific Region, for which he himself had done the planning.
When he finally retired his habit was to spend summer with one daughter in Tasmania and summer with the other daughter in East Anglia, a brilliant arrangement which seemed typical of him. The journeys between the two destinations involved visits to friends and relatives all over the world. On these trips, the last when he was about 90, he never failed to visit his department in the British Museum.
He married Marion Jane Davies in 1939. They had two daughters.
A. E. A. Werner, chemist, was born on June 14, 1911. He died on January 21, 2006, aged 94.
