Biography of Erik Richard Sidney FIFOOT
[Ref. R.230]
| Ancestors |  |
Profile | |
Index for FIFOOT |
Biography of Erik Richard Sidney FIFOOT
[Ref. R.230]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
Index for FIFOOT |
Erik Richard Sidney Fifoot was born on 14 June 1925 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, the only child of Cecil and Hjordis Fifoot. He used the name Richard but was generally known as Dick. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and the University of Oxford where he gained an MA in Jurisprudence. He served as a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards between 1943 and 1946. Operation Veritable in Holland in 1944 was one of the events in which he saw action and during which was awarded the Military Cross.
Richard married Jean Meriel Stuart Thain in Oxford on 2 September 1949. It is not thought that they had any children.
In 1950, whilst studying for a Diploma in Librarianship and Archives at University College in London, Richard began to compile a bibliography of works by Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell. Thirteen years later his college project resulted in it's publication as a book.
As a British Librarian, he started at the library of the University of Leeds as Assistant Librarian in 1950. He rose to Sub-Librarian in 1952 and served until 1958.
In 1957 Richard and Jean were living at 1 Friars Terrace in York. On 31 July that year they sailed from Southampton bound for New York aboard S S Nieuw Amsterdam of the Holland-America Line.
He became Deputy Librarian of the University of Nottingham in 1958. In 1960 he moved to be Librarian of the University of Edinburgh from 1960 until 1979 during which time he and his wife lived at 4 St.Margaret's Road in that city. His mother came to live nearby after his father died in 1975. Richard held a Professorial Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford from 1979 so he and Jean moved to Oxford and lived in Mill Green at Bampton Castle west of the city, his mother living nearby until her death in 1994. He was appointed Bodley's Librarian in Oxford where he served from 1 January 1980 until his retirement in 1981.
Richard was chairman of the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries from 1979 to 1981, as well as a member of the Executive Board of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions from 1979 to 1983. He founded Three Rivers Books Ltd, and was a director from 1981 to 1990. His writings included A Bibliography of Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell.
Richard died on 24 June 1992.
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