Charles Aitken

Charles Aitken (12 September 1869 – 9 August 1936) was a British art administrator and was the third Keeper of the Tate Gallery (1911–1917) and the first Director (1917–1930). Life and work Charles Aitken was born at Bishophill, Bishophill Junior, York, England, the son of Henry Martin Aitken, a surgical instrument manufacturer, and his wife, Elizabeth Atkinson. He had two elder sisters including Rosa, former student of Girton College and teacher à North London Collegiate School, and Edith Aitken who would becoming a leading headteacher in South Africa. Charles Aitken studied at New College, Oxford. He was the first Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery from 1901 to 1911, and became Keeper at the Tate Gallery in 1911. In 1917 he changed his title from "Keeper" to "Director". Sir John Rothenstein described Aitken as "an ordinary man: his intelligence was relatively pedestrian, his powers of self-expression scarcely adequate". However, Rothenstein considered that the job "brought out qualities that made him a great director: clarity and firmness of purpose".