The first keeper of the original Tate Gallery, Sir Charles Holroyd was Director of the National Gallery during the late Edwardian era and the start of the First World War.
Holroyd was born on 9 April 1861 in Potternewton near Leeds. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and at the Yorkshire College of Science before deciding to change direction in 1880, when he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. There he studied under the artist Alphonse Legros and later taught at the school while also pursuing an artistic career.
In 1897 Holroyd was appointed the first Keeper of the National Gallery of British Art at Millbank (now Tate Britain). In June 1906 he became Director of the National Gallery, a position which he held until June 1916 when he resigned owing to ill health. The following year, on 17 November 1917, Holroyd died at his home in Surrey.
