Past Master presented OBE

Past Master David Dewing attended Buckingham Palace last week to officially be awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Arts.

HRH Prince of Wales presented David with the OBE at a ceremony on Tuesday 20 February.

David was joined by members of his family, including his wife Alison.

Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company from 2015-2016, David is a qualified furniture designer and historian, who spent most of his career in museums.  In 1991 he became director of the Geffrye Museum of the Home in east London.

David led the museum through major changes, with an extension completed in 1998, and a series of gallery improvement works. He has been instrumental in planning and fundraising for an £18m development due for completion in 2019, which will provide a new Home Gallery, learning spaces and a library.  He retired from the museum in December 2016.

Educated at Radley College near Oxford, David took a degree in Three-Dimensional Design at Ravensbourne College of Art, in Bromley.  Graduating in 1973, he worked in the furniture design office at Kent County Council for six years before deciding on a career change into museums.

He joined the Museum of London and took a Museums Diploma with Leicester University, then a Master’s Degree in London Studies at Birkbeck College. He is an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary, University of London.

David takes over as chairman of the Frederick Parker Committee, part of The Furniture Makers’ Company, in May 2018.