Geoffrey Fairbank Webb was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Control Commission during World War II.

Webb was born at Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

, the son of John Racker Webb and his wife Elizabeth Hodgson Fairbank. He was educated at Birkenhead School

Birkenhead School

Birkenhead School is an independent, selective, co-educational school located on the Wirral Peninsula in the northwest of England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.-Overview:The school is subdivided into...

 and in 1917 volunteered to join the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. He went to Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...

 in 1919 where he read English, and graduated in 1921. When he moved to London, he met members of the Bloomsbury group

Bloomsbury Group

The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...

, including Roger Fry

Roger Fry

Roger Eliot Fry was an English artist and art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism...

. Webb started to write articles on art for the Burlington Magazine. In 1929 he started lecturing at Cambridge and also became a lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...

 in 1934. In 1938 he became Slade Professor of Fine Art

Slade Professor of Fine Art

The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London.-History:The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collector and philanthropist Felix Slade, with studentships also created in the University of...

 at Cambridge.

When World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 broke out, he joined the Navy again, working for Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

. He was then in the historical section of the War Cabinet Office and joined the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program

Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program

The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies was established in 1943 to assist in the protection and restitution of cultural property in war areas during and following World War II...

.
He resumed the Slade professorship in 1948, and then became secretary to the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. He was also a member of the Royal Fine Arts Commission, and was elected a fellow of the British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

 in 1957. In 1956 he wrote a volume on medieval British architecture for the Pelican History of Art.

Webb retired to Solva

Solva

Solva is a village and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK.-Location:Solva lies on the north side of St Bride's Bay, in North Pembrokeshire in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. It lies on a deep ravine at the mouth of the River Solva. In the ravine is...

, Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

 and died at Ffynone, Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

.

Publications

• The Complete Works of Sir John Vanbrugh. 4 vols. with Bonamy Dobrée The Nonesuch Press, 1927-1928
• "Architecture and sculpture" in Roger Fry Georgian Art (1760-1820) B. T. Batsford, 1929
• The Letters and Drawings of Nicholas Hawksmoor Relating to the Building of the Mausoleum at Castle Howard, 1726-1742 Walpole Society 17 (1929)
• Gothic Architecture in England British Council/Longmans, Green,1951
• Baroque Art: Annual Lecture on Aspects of Art Henriette Hertz Trust, 1947. British Academy, 1951
• Architecture in Britain: the Middle Ages Pelican History of Art 12. Penguin Books, 1956