Ian G Greenlees

London, England, Death Notices from The Times, 1982-1988

• Name: Ian Gordon OBE Greenlees
• Age: 75
• Birth Year: 1913
• Death Date: 22 Jul 1988
• Published Date: 25 Jul 1988

(Translation)

Ian Gordon Greenlees was born July 10, 1913 by Samuel Greenlees and Rosalie Stewart.

He attended the College of the Benedictine monks of Ampleforth in Yorkshire and then devoted himself to the study of modern languages ​​at Magdalen College, Oxford. From 1934 to 1936 he was Reader in English Literature at the University of Rome. He was commissioned by the British Council to monitor the British cultural centres in Italy and became the representative of the British Council from 1939 to 1940. In that same year he was appointed Director of the British Institute of Rome. He was part of the British army and was appointed to serve in the North African and Italian campaigns with the rank of Major.

In 1943 he seized the transmitter Radio Bari from the control of Fascists and founded the first free radio broadcasting propaganda against the Italian fascist. At that time he had contacts with intellectuals and Italian partisans. His portrait in a military uniform was painted by Renato Guttuso, a dear friend, as were also Mario Praz, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia.

In the postwar period he was the second Secretary and Assistant to the Military Diplomatic Print at the Embassy of Rome (from January to December 1946). Also in 1946 he was Assistant Director of the British Council. He published a small study of Norman Douglas. With the active support of Harold Hacton in 1958 replaced Francis Toye for the position of Director of the British Institute of Florence, a position he has held twenty-three years. In 1959 he received the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture and in 1963 he was appointed a Knight Officer. From the town of Bagni di Lucca where he owned a large house (Casa Mansi, via del Bagno 20) and where he kept his personal library of more than twenty-five thousand volumes, was the recognition of Honorary Citizen in 1972.

With his friend Robin Chanter owned another house in Anacapri (Villa Fraiti) on the island of Capri. In Florence, housed in a large apartment bought at his request by the British Institute (Via Santo Spirito, 15) where he had a collection of antique furniture, silverware, watches and paintings. Among the many works of art were the Carracci brothers, Guttuso and a portrait of the mid-century. XIX of Walter Savage Landor, one of his favourite writers.

In 1975 he was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of Merit. Along with Robin Chanter costs time and money for the Italian Association for the Protection of Birds Lipu, whose offices are found for a period of time within the British Institute. In 1981, after a conflict with management, he retired from the British Institute, leaving the gift was from executives to the victims of the earthquake in Southern Italy. A Bagni di Lucca began to write his memoirs and in his will left most of his books to the City.

He died July 22, 1988 and his remains rest in the cemetery of Bagni di Lucca.

see http://159.213.83.163/pages/greenlees.asp