Cecil Higgins, the youngest son of a wealthy Bedford brewer, was born in 1856 in Castle Close (now the Victorian Mansion in the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery). In 1883 he went into partnership with his elder brother to run the brewery though he soon grew bored and moved to London, where he spent years as a man-about-town. When over fifty he unexpectedly took control of the brewery and made a success of it. In his seventies he was seized by the ambition to found a museum in Bedford and devoted the rest of his life to forming a collection to this end. He always bought on the best advice and with great discrimination and the collection he built up was of outstanding quality.

Cecil was a tall and imposing man, autocratic, highly competent, a shrewd judge of both men and of works of art. He loved luxury, society and entertaining. Above all he loved beautiful things.

Cecil died in 1941, collecting to the last. He bequeathed his collection to the Trustees, instructing them to offer the use of it to the Bedford Corporation (now the Borough Council) if the latter would house and display it, preferably in Castle Close, and pay the running costs. To ensure his museum continued to grow, he left the Trustees an endowment to purchase new acquisitions. Other provisions in the will ensured that the museum remained an independent high-quality institution under skilled direction. No additions, for instance were to be made without the approval of a national expert and the appointment of a curator was to be approved by the Director of the British Museum or the Victoria and Albert Museum. All these conditions are still valid. The corporation accepted the bequest and the Gallery opened in Castle Close in 1949.