V&A Directors

Dr Tristram Hunt

b. 1974

Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
2017 – present

Martin Roth

1955 – 2017

Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
2011 – 2016

Sir Mark Jones

b. 1951

Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
2001 – 2011

Dr Alan Borg, CBE

b. 1942

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1995 – 2001

Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll

1938 – 2024

Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1987 – 95

Sir Roy Strong

b. 1935

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1974 – 87

Sir John Pope-Hennessy, CBE, FBA, FSA

1913 – 94

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1967 – 73

Sir Trenchard Cox, CBE, MA, FSA, FMA

1905 – 95

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1956 – 66

Sir Leigh Ashton, FSA

1897 – 1983

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1945 – 55

Sir Eric Maclagan, CBE, FSA

1879 – 1951

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1924 – 44

Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith KCVO

1859 – 1944

Director and Secretary of the Victoria and Albert Museum
1909 – 24

Arthur Banks Skinner

1861 – 1911

Director of the Art Museum
(Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum)
1905 – 08

Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke

1846 – 1911

Director of the Art Museum
(Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum)
1896 – 1905

John Henry Middleton

1846 – 96

Director of the Art Museum
(Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum)
1893 – 96

Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, KCP, KCMG, CIE

1828 – 94

Director of the South Kensington Museum
1874 – 93

Sir Henry Cole, CB

1808 – 82

Organised and conducted the two museums from which the Victoria and Albert Museum was formed – the Museum of Ornamental Art and the South Kensington Museum.
1852 – 73