Philip Cunliffe-Owen

Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen KCB KCMG CIE FRSA (8 June 1828 – 23 March 1894) was an exhibition organizer and the Director of the South Kensington Museum in London.

Philip Cunliffe-Owen was a British subject born in Switzerland, the son of Captain Charles Cunliffe-Owen RN and Mary Peckwell Blossett. At the age of 12, he joined the Royal Navy, served in the Mediterranean and West Indies, but left after five years due to poor health.

In 1854, his elder brother, Henry Charles Cunliffe-Owen, helped him to obtain a position in the newly formed Department of Science and Art. The secretary of the department was Henry Cole (later to be the first Director of the South Kensington Museum). Cole appointed Cunliffe-Owen as one of the superintendents of the British section in the 1855 Exposition Universelle, held at Paris. Cunliffe-Owen was an expert in French, which proved very helpful.

In 1857, Cunliffe-Owen became deputy general superintendent of the new South Kensington Museum. In 1860, he was promoted to be Assistant Director in 1860, second in command to Henry Cole, who was the Director.

Cunliffe-Owen acted as director of the foreign sections for the 1862 International Exhibition in London. He helped Cole as assistant executive commissioner for the Paris 1867 Exposition Universelle. He was appointed secretary of the Royal Commission and to represent Britain at the 1873 Weltausstellung in Vienna, Austria, reporting to the Edward, Prince of Wales.

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