Alan Patrick McGowan （1928-2016）

摘要

Alan McGowan, who died on 3 June aged 87, began his museum career at a comparatively late age when he joined the National Maritime Museum in August 1967. Alan was one of a family of six children whose father's printing works had been destroyed in an air raid during the war. The limited compensation then available caused financial difficulties that prevented Alan from going straight to university to pursue an academic career. After national service in the army he became a primary school teacher, meeting his future wife, Betty, who was in the UK from Canada on a teacher exchange scheme. Betty was to be a huge support to him throughout his career. Together they settled in Canada where Alan acquired his BA and MA They then returned to the UK where he was able to undertake a PhD at University College London on the navy of James I. This choice of subject not only stood him in good stead when he successfully applied in 1967 for the post of Assistant Keeper in the Ships Department at Greenwich but provided valuable background work for his well-received volume The Jacobean Commissions of Enquiry 1608 and 1618, published by the Navy Records Society in 1971.