Robert Hiscox, 73, chairs Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Trust, a charity whose mission is to find a new and better home for the Swindon’s art and museum collections, and to use that venue to boost the attractiveness and revenue of the town centre. The trust recently announced the appointment of Hadrian Ellory-van Dekker, currently Head of Collections and Chief Curator of the Science Museum, as its new director. Robert, a former High Sheriff of Wiltshire, lives near Marlborough and is a married father of five and grandfather of six.    

“IT’S the best disease in the world – wherever you go there’s always something to see.”

Robert Hiscox, who bought his first painting at the age of 16, is talking about art, an interest which was with him throughout his youth and a long career and is with him still.

He was still in his late twenties when the death of his father put him at the helm of his family’s insurance firm in the City of London.

Over the next 43 years, until his retirement, he turned the company into a major international presence with FTSE 250 status.

He pioneered the underwriting of fine art and also served as deputy chairman of Lloyd’s during a period in the 1990s when its future was threatened by a multitude of claims from across the Atlantic.

Robert was invited by former Swindon Council chief executive Gavin Jones to join Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Trust when it was established last year, but his fondness for and knowledge of the town’s art heritage goes back far longer.

“I came to Wiltshire in 1990 and became a life member of the museum because I had a lifelong interest in art.”

Swindon’s treasures famously include the best collection of 20th century British art outside London, which dates back to pioneering work by several local leaders, dignitaries and philanthropists.

“They bought small works by good artists,” said Robert. “It’s wonderful to see a collection like that – put together year by year.

There are about 500 paintings but the art collection also includes an impressive selection of ceramics – and according to Robert the museum collection makes a nonsense of any suggestion that Swindon’s history didn’t begin until Brunel stumbled upon a modest market town.

The museum store, whose location is never disclosed, includes many items recovered and carefully tagged during the digging of foundations over the years and decades.

“We need to sort the wheat from the chaff,” said Robert.

“It’s very interesting to go to the store. They have boxes with things that were found under buildings. There is Roman history. In the new museum it will be good to be able to show off the long history of the town.”

The size of the current museum is a major driving force in the campaign to secure a new building.

“For such a good collection it’s hopelessly inadequate – they’re in a house with a sixties extension.”

Robert would like the new building to be a museum and art gallery as well as a sort of community centre rather than a museum where people experience – as he puts it – awe and fear.

Getting the new building right, he insists, will benefit the town not just culturally but commercially.

“Revenues go up, property values go up and the town gets more business coming into it. I do see this as an investment to make the town much richer.

“My interest is that partly but also the growth of recognition of the town. I think building a museum is going to be so good for the morale and economy of the town. That’s what inspired me to get involved.”

In an interview with a national newspaper last year he famously praised Swindon’s art collection and its people but described the town as architecturally challenged. Few disagreed with him.

He highlights Swindon’s location on the M4 corridor, its ready access to beautiful countryside and its dynamism, but his views on its architecture remain the same.

“It’s got everything going for it except its built heritage. What they have built since the war is a bit of a scandal. Nobody really cared. If you walk round you don’t see any form of town planning.”

Recruiting Hadrian Ellory-van Dekker as director of the trust is something Robert sees as vital. Long years in business have taught him that having the right leader is essential.

“If you get a good person in charge, the rest follows. I have for ages said, ‘We must appoint a director, we must appoint a director.’ “When he put his hat in the ring it was pretty irresistible.” The new director’s experience of running a large and prestigious museum, plus his awareness of science, counted strongly in his favour. The Swindon collection, after all, reflects not just visionary art acquisition but also a long history of technology. Some parts of the collection, notably the ceramics, combine art and science as they rely on chemical changes for completion.

Robert is keenly aware of the unfair cliché about Swindon being a rather dull place.

“I want to change that. I want to have a town which is much more interesting – and people travel for miles to go and visit.”