TEMPLE, Sir Alfred George 1848-1928. Art historian and Director of the Guildhall Gallery
Alfred Temple grew up in de Crespigny Park and was educated at Denmark Hill Grammar School. After school he joined the City of London Corporation where his father and grandfather had also worked. He became a clerk and took evening classes at Lambeth School of Art and the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). When the Corporation established the Guildhall Art Gallery Temple became its first Director. He was knighted in 1920 for his contributions to the arts.
He lived in Norwood and then at Pickwick Cottage, 31 College Road from 1926. His grandfather, George Temple, lived in London but spent the weekends in Dulwich and left Pickwick Cottage to his daughter (Sir Alfred's aunt) Sarah who had married Samuel Nail, an Lloyd's insurance broker. Sir Alfred said the house was never known as Pickwick in his aunt’s time, and it was many years after her death that he noticed in passing that it had been so-called. He lived there until his death in 1928 and is buried in West Norwood cemetery.