The contribution of Dr Kevin Fewster as director of the world’s largest maritime museum was recognised at a farewell reception hosted by Ravi Mehrotra of Foresight Group.
Several well-known faces joined the lunchtime celebration at Foresight’s London headquarters prior to Fewster stepping down from Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) at the end of July.
Fewster and wife Carol moved from Australia in 2007 to take on the role at what was then the National Maritime Museum.
It is now the largest cultural destination in the UK outside of central London.
Fewster’s retirement follows completion of the museum’s Endeavour Masterplan Project, lasting from 2014 to 2018, with the opening of four new galleries and the move of its collections into the new Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre in Kidbrooke.
Patrons for life
Mehrotra and his wife are life patrons of RMG and have supported various projects, including recarving of the Star of India, the original stern decoration on the historic sailing ship Cutty Sark, now part of RMG.
Mehrotra quipped that Fewster was responsible for London Greeks leaving the capital because “he is so persuasive in making you donate to the museum”.
Sammy Ofer, for example, donated £20m (around $32m at the time) towards a new wing of the museum named after him.
Lord Jeffrey Mountevans (Jeffrey Evans), the former Lord Mayor of the City of London and a Clarksons’ shipbroker, said Fewster had made a huge impact on RMG and the whole London maritime scene. RMG had pushed Britain’s maritime heritage “front of stage”.
Fewster said it was good time to hand on responsibility for the museum to someone else as RMG is in “great shape” following completion of its master plan.
