Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, 63, died on December 12, 1969. He was an English landowner, biographer and historian. He was born in Plympton, Devon on May 2, 1906 to Wyndham Cremer Ketton-Cremer and his wife, Emily Bayly. He was educated at Harrow School. He read English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford. While at Oxford, heh published poetry. He and his brother adopted the surname Ketton-Cremer in 1924. He was a descendant of the Wyndham family, who owned the Felbrigg estate in Norfolk, and was known as the Last Squire. He inherited the estate on his father's death in 1933. He younger brother was killed in Crete during World War II. He also owned the Beeston Regis estate including what is now Beeston Hall School. He served as a Justice of the Peace and as part of that job was required to witness two hangings. He was a major in the East Norfolk Home Guard during World War II. He served as High Sheriff of Norfolk from 1951 until 1952, and was a trustee of National Portrait Gallery. He was a historian and biographer, writing on the history of Norfolk. He wrote biographies of William Windham, a Whig statesman; politician Horace Walpole; and poet Thomas Gray, the latter winning the James Tait Black Award. His works included: The Early Life and Diaries of William Windham, 1930; Horace Walpole: A Biography. 1940; Oliver Le Neve and his duel with Sir Henry Hobart, 1941; Norfolk Portraits, 1944; A Norfolk Gallery, 1945; Country Neighbourhood. Faber and Faber, London, 1951; Thomas Gray, 1955; Norfolk Assembly, 1957; Forty Norfolk Essays, 1961; Felbrigg: The Story of a House, 1962; and Norfolk in the Civil War: A portrait of a society in conflict, 1969. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1968, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of East Anglia in 1969. He never married, and bequeathed Felbrigg Hall to the National Trust.
Bio by anonymous (48021781)