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Thom Richardson

Thom Richardson FSA is Curator Emeritus at the Royal Armouries.

He is former Research and Collections Advisor (2015–2016), Deputy Master and Head of Collections (2014–2015), and Keeper of the Armour and Oriental Collections (1996–2014).

Thom Richardson joined the staff of the Tower Armouries in 1984 having previously worked for the British Museum and Manchester City Art Gallery. He completed his PhD on ‘The medieval inventories of the Tower armouries 1320–1410’ at the University of York in 2012.

He is the former editor of the Journal of the Arms and Armour Society and of Arms & Armour, and author of numerous books and articles on armour and related subjects, including The medieval armour from Rhodes, co-written with the late Chip Karcheski. In 2002, he won ICOMAM’s Justus Lipsius Prize.

Publications

  • Arms and armour of the Elizabethan court, Leeds, Royal Armouries, 2015
  • Islamic arms and armour, Leeds, Royal Armouries, 2015
  • The armour and arms of Henry VIII, new ed., Royal Armouries, Leeds, 2015
  • (with Natasha Bennett) Indian arms and armour, new ed., Royal Armouries, Leeds, 2015
  • (with A. Curry, D. Spencer and P. Hoskins) The Agincourt Companion, London, 2015
  • (with K. Watts) Armour at the time of Agincourt, in A. Curry and M Mercer (eds) The Battle of Agincourt, New York, 2015, 110–137
  • (with A. Curry) English Flags and Banners at Agincourt, in A. Curry and M Mercer (eds) The Battle of Agincourt, New York, 2015, 155–7
  • (with Graeme Rimer ) The Popham Armoury at Littlecote House, Leeds, Royal Armouries, 2013
  • Introduction and text for Carlo Paggiarino, The Royal Armouries, masterpieces of medieval and renaissance arms and armour, Milan, Hans Prunner, 2011
  • ‘Arms and armor from the Kofun period to the introduction of firearms’, in J Gabriel Barbier-Mueller (ed.), The Art of Armour, Samurai armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection, Paris, 2011, 91–8
  • ‘Armour in England, 1325–99’, Journal of Medieval History 37, 2011, 304–20
  • (with Graeme Rimer and J P D Cooper) Henry VIII, arms and the man 1509–2009, Leeds, Royal Armouries, 2009
  • London armourers in the 17th century, Royal Armouries, Leeds, 2004