Kirkham Abbey

Abstract

Tom French died on 18 February 2001 after a short illness. He will be remembered as a distinguished scholar and historian of English stained glass and particularly for his contribution to the study of York Minster and its windows. In 1947, after distinguished service in the Royal Artillery, he joined the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments as an architectural investigator. He contributed to the Dorset county inventories and then moved to York, working on the five city inventory volumes published between 1962 and 1981. In the early 1970s he contributed to the Royal Commission's investigation of the Minster and became especially interested in its stained glass. He was active in the academic life of York, serving as a council member of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, a member of the York DAC and Minster FAC and a Trustee of York Glaziers Trust. After retirement in 1980, Tom continued to research and publish on the architectural history of York Minster and became a member of the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi. In 1987 he published, jointly with David O'Connor, the first CVMA volume devoted to the Minster, The West Windows of the Nave. This was followed by his solo volumes on The Great East Window (1985) and The St William Window (2000). At the time of his death he was working on a volume devoted to the glazing of the western choir clerestory and it is from this research that the following paper was derived.