Charles Travis Clay


Sir Charles Travis Clay was an English librarian and antiquarian who was the librarian of the House of Lords Library from 1922–56.

Early life and education

Clay was born at Rastrick House in Rastrick, near Halifax, Yorkshire, the younger son of historian and genealogist John William Clay and his wife, Alice Caroline Pilleau. His mother was the daughter of Colonel Henry Pilleau and descended from Pezé Pilleau, the notable Huguenot silversmith. His only brother, Lionel Pilleau Clay, was killed in action in 1918 in the First World War.
He was educated at Harrow School, earning a scholarship for mathematics at Balliol College, Oxford in 1904. After gaining only second-class honours in mathematical moderations, he was able to keep his scholarship but read history. Under the tutelage of Henry William Carless Davis and Arthur Lionel Smith, he took first-class honours in modern history in 1908.

Career

Clay became assistant secretary to the Marquess of Crewe, first at the Colonial Office and then at the India Office. After Sir Edmund Gosse retired in 1914, Lord Crewe, at that time Leader of the House of Lords, recommended Clay as an Assistant Librarian at House of Lords Library. Shortly afterward, he was commissioned into the Royal Devon Yeomanry and sent to France. He rose to the rank of major and was twice mentioned in dispatches.
He succeeded as librarian in 1922, and served more than three decades in the post while continuing to pursue his passion for genealogy and antiquities, earning a reputation for his expertise in both art and archaeology.
He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries for 65 years and vice-president of the society in 1934–38. He also served as honorary vice-president of the Royal Historical Society. He was a member of the Huguenot Society and the Harleian Society as well as the Roxburghe Club for bibliophiles.
In 1943, Clay was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Leeds. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, civil division, in the 1944 New Year Honours. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy elected in 1950.
Following his retirement, he was knighted in the 1957 Birthday Honours.

Personal life

In 1913, Clay married the Hon. Alice Violet Robson, daughter of justice William Robson, Baron Robson. They had three daughters, Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop, a prominent archaeologist; Rosemary Travis Clay ; and Diana Franklin Clay, who married opera singer and director Norman Platt.
He died in Oxford, Oxfordshire, in 1978.