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One of the original Foundation Members, he lived in Oakfield Rd., Clifton, and when the early members were seeking accommodation he made his house available for meetings. He was born at Portishead in August 1878. At the Foundation Meeting he was the youngest member and his keen interest continued for nearly thirty years. He studied art at Calderon`s School of Animal Painting and Julian`s Academy in Paris and became very well known as a painter of landscapes and animal subjects. He published a book The Drawing and Construction of Animals and Animal Painting (Chapman and Hall) which became a recognised textbook. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Royal Cambrian Academy, the Paris Salon and, of course, the R.W.A. to which he was elected in 1910, and for many years was a member of their hanging committee. In appearance he was tall, clean-shaven and bespectacled. Like most of those early members he smoked pipe, filled no doubt from the silver skull on the Chairman`s table and replenished before each session, but unlike them he possessed a somewhat stentorian voice. For twenty years he was assistant Art Master at Clifton College. He played rugby for Clifton Rugby Club and later refereed for them. He became a member of the University Literary Club. In 1934 his health began to deteriorate. He underwent a major surgical operation and when asked what was done he said, “They took away all my innards and replaced them with rubber”. We have over twenty of his sketches and his contributions to the Presentation Folios to Bongie, Wilfred Peake and Rossie. There is one of his paintings in the Bristol Art Gallery and another purchased from the Royal Academy in the Huddersfield Art Gallery. The World of Art described the following as his principal works Sunlit pastures, The Drinking Pool, The Harvest Moon & Tranquil Evening. At the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939 he became an Air Raid Warden. He died in September 1941 aged 63. (Cecil Broome)
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