Desmond MacCarthy (1877–1952)

Sir Desmond MacCarthy, a noted literary critic, was a member of the Bloomsbury Group along with his wife Mary (Molly) Warre-Cornish MacCarthy, whom he married in 1906. Asked by Roger Fry to be secretary to the first Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1910, he traveled throughout Europe acquiring the work of then-unknown artists such as Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Matisse. He served as an ambulance driver in France during World War I. Desmond MacCarthy worked for The New Statesman as literary editor from 1920 to 1927. He was knighted in 1951. See also "Clever Hearts: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy: A Biography," by grandson Hugh Cecil and Mirabel Cecil (1990).