Thomas Boase was born in Dundee, Scotland, to Charles Millet Boase (d. 1921), operator of a bleaching mill at Claverhouse, outside Dundee, of which the Boase family were part-owners,[4] and his wife Anne.[5] Boase was educated at a day preparatory school and then at Rugby School in England (1912–17).
He won a scholarship to Oxford for an essay on Lorenzo de' Medici.[6] Boase studied Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1919 to 1921. At Oxford he studied under the historian Francis Fortescue Urquhart (1868–1934).[7] Boase was a Fellow and Tutor at Hertford College from 1922 to 1937.
From 1947 to 1968, Boase was President of Magdalen College. In 1948, he contributed to the Samuel Courtauld Memorial Exhibition at Tate Britain.[11] He was a Trustee of the National Gallery (1947–53) and the British Museum (1950–69). Boase was involved in a 'scandal' while Chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery in 1952.[12] He served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1958 to 1960. Boase became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1961. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford for 1963–64.[13] In 1967, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.[14] He was also a member of the Advisory Council of the Victoria and Albert Museum (1947–70).
^admin (21 February 2018). "Boase, T. S. R."Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art: de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, p. 510; Stoye, John. Dictionary of National Biography; Alexander, Jonathan J. G. "Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase, 1898–1974." Proceedings of the British Academy 101 (1998): 353–362; Boase, Thomas S. R. [unpublished memoir], Magdalen College, Oxford University archives; Folda, Jaroslav "Introduction." Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 12–14; Carter, Miranda. Anthony Blunt: His Lives. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2001, pp. 216, 219–220; Zarnecki, George. "T. S. R. Boase." Burlington Magazine 117, no. 873 (December 1975): 809; "Dr. T. S. R. Boase, Former President of Magdalen College, Oxford." The Times (London) 15 April 1974, p. 8; [a particularly warm addendum] Blunt, Anthony. "Dr. T. S. R. Boase." The Times (London) 20 April 1974, p. 14. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
^admin (21 February 2018). "Boase, T. S. R."Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art: de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, p. 510; Stoye, John. Dictionary of National Biography; Alexander, Jonathan J. G. "Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase, 1898–1974." Proceedings of the British Academy 101 (1998): 353–362; Boase, Thomas S. R. [unpublished memoir], Magdalen College, Oxford University archives; Folda, Jaroslav "Introduction." Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 12–14; Carter, Miranda. Anthony Blunt: His Lives. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2001, pp. 216, 219–220; Zarnecki, George. "T. S. R. Boase." Burlington Magazine 117, no. 873 (December 1975): 809; "Dr. T. S. R. Boase, Former President of Magdalen College, Oxford." The Times (London) 15 April 1974, p. 8; [a particularly warm addendum] Blunt, Anthony. "Dr. T. S. R. Boase." The Times (London) 20 April 1974, p. 14. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
^"History". The Courtauld Institute of Art. Retrieved 16 November 2020.