My friend Diana Graves, who has died from pancreatic cancer aged 64, was for many years the head of metals conservation at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she worked on items as varied as chain mail and the huge 19th-century gothic altar screen from Hereford Cathedral, which is now in the museum.
Diana, who used her maiden name, Heath, professionally, also worked at the Courtauld Institute and at Westminster Abbey, including as part of its restoration preparations for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. Her last completed project before she became ill last summer was cleaning an intricately inscribed medieval Egyptian Mamluk ewer for the auction house Christie’s.
The oldest of three daughters of Roger Heath, a civil engineer, and Sally (nee Aggleton), Diana was born in Wolverhampton and educated at the city’s girls’ high school. After an art foundation year at Wolverhampton Art College she obtained a degree in silversmithing at Sheffield School of Art before going to work for the National Trust and then the V&A.
Diana married the Daily Telegraph journalist David Graves in 1992 and the couple had two sons, Oliver (whose godfather I am) and Nathan. In 2002 David was drowned while on a trip for the Telegraph in the Bahamas. David had wanted to take up a new hobby for his 50th birthday and they had decided that learning to fly was too dangerous so he had opted to try scuba diving instead.
Diana brought up the two boys while continuing her job as a conservator at the museum for 32 years. Her work was both intricate and painstaking, often on ancient objects of great rarity and fragility. Her skill was so highly regarded internationally that it took her to jobs all over the world, including to Tokyo, Beijing, Tbilisi and Berlin.
Diana is survived by Oliver and Nathan, and by her sisters, Sarah and Bridget.
