Peter Entwistle

Peter Entwistle
Born	1866
Died	1939
Residence	Mayer Museum, Liverpool The Free Public Museum, Liverpool [1921] 7 Ormonde Street, Liscard, Wallasey, Cheshire [1929] 2 Rosemead Avenue, Pensby, near Heswall, Cheshire [1931]
Occupation	museum work
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1939 deceased elected_AI 1909.12.20

Notes

House Notes

1909.11.03 proposed by Henry O. Forbes, seconded by C.H. Read
death noted in Report of the Council 1939-1940

Notes From Elsewhere

Peter Entwistle worked at Liverpool Museum for 53 years, from 1876 to 1929. He became Assistant Curator in 1895, and eventually Deputy Director and Keeper of Ceramics and Ethnology in 1926/7. The Ethnology Department was created as a separate department in the Museum's reorganisation of 1928. Source: AC West (1981) 'Notes on the History of the Ethnology Department' Merseyside County Museums, unpublished paper.

By 1881, young Peter Entwistle was living in lodgings at 8 Exley Street, West Derby and
working as an Assistant at Liverpool Museum.
On 4 December 1886 he married Lydia Cokersol at Christ Church, Kensington, West Derby.
Peter was 22 years old, living in Tudor Street, and his occupation was given as ‘Clerk’. Lydia
was 21 years old, living in Moira Street. She was the daughter of William Cokersol
(deceased), a painter. Witnesses to the marriage were William Henry Mellor and Hannah
Jane Cokersol.
Their daughter, Florence, was born towards the end of 1887 in West Derby, to be followed
two years later by a son, Charles.
By 1901, Peter and Lydia’s family had grown, and Peter had become a Curator at the
museum:
In 1908, Peter Entwistle visited Tenerife with his wife and daughter. He took with him some
Egyptian pots in exchange for some 17th century Spanish tiles. A book entitled “Coleccion
devasos Egipcios del Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife”, by
Eduardo Almenara Rosales and Candelaria Martin del Rio Alvarez, is illustrated with objects
from the Egyptian collection in Tenerife, and contains letters exchanged between Tenerife
and Liverpool in 1908.
In June 1914, Peter Entwistle issued a prospectus of his “proposed book on the HISTORY OF
THE LIVERPOOL POTTERIES, covering a period of two centuries of the Potters Art, fully
illustrated, and with Six Coloured Plates”. The price to subscribers would be £2 2s. [£2.10 in
decimal currency.] Owing to the War and other unforeseen circumstances, the issue of the
proposed work had to remain in abeyance.
Possibly the death of his wife, Lydia, earlier in 1914, led to some of the ‘unforeseen
circumstances’. However, Peter Entwistle continued to make “considerable and valuable
discoveries on some of the sites, and unearthed much new documentary evidence, which
reveals quite a new light on the products and activities of several of the works”. It was
suggested that his work should be published in two volumes, and in August 1922 he sent a
letter to those who had become subscribers asking if they were willing to subscribe at the new
price of £5 5s. [£5.25] for the two volumes.
So far (August 2007) I have been unable to ascertain whether publication did take place.
An entry in Kelly’s Directory, 1926, lists Peter Entwistle, F.R.A.I. Deputy curator, Museum,
William Brown Street, Liverpool. Residence: 7 Ormonde Street, Liscard (a district of
Wallasey).
...
DEATH OF MR. PETER ENTWISTLE IN RETIREMENT
The death has occurred at Pensby, Wirral, of Mr. Peter Entwistle, who served the Liverpool
Corporation Museums for over 50 years and who was deputy curator when he retired in 1935.
He was 73 years of age.
Mr. Entwistle was widely known as an authority and lecturer on archaeological matters, and
especially on old pottery. His work brought him into touch with antiquaries and writers all
over the Empire.
In his early days he was a gymnast and devoted a good deal of time to boys’ club and Boy
Scout work in Liverpool.
An entry in the National Calendar of Wills and Grants of Probate reads:
ENTWISTLE, PETER, late of 2 Rosemead Avenue, Pensby, Wirral, died 6 November 1939.
Admon. Liverpool 25 January 1940 to Kate Entwistle, widow, and Henry Entwistle,
commercial clerk. Effects £1,633.11s.6d.