Britain Unlimited covers 250 Great British people and what made them famous

Who was stanley Spencer? Artist. Date and Place of Birth: 30th June 1891, Cookham-on-Thames, Berkshire, England. Family Background: Eighth surviving child of William Spencer, a piano teacher and his wife Annie. Education: At a school run by his sisters. Maidenhead Technical College. Slade School of Art, London. (Amongst his contemporaries was Paul Nash) Chronology: 1912: Returned from London to Cookham to paint at his parents house. Exhibited his first major work "John Donne arriving in Heaven" at the Grafton Galleries in London. 1915: During the First World War he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. and worked at the Beaufort Hospital in Bristol. 1916: He was posted to Macedonia serving with field ambulances. 1917: He volunteered for the 7th Battalion, The Royal Berkshires infantry regiment. 1918: His older brother Sydney was killed din France in the last few months of the war. 1919: After the war he returned to Cookham where he took up work on "Swan Upping which he had left unfinished before he went to war. 1920: Moved to live with the Slessor family in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire and then with Henry Lamb in Dorset. 1921: Stayed with the artist Muirhead Bones in Hampshire where he was asked to design a war memorial. This project was however never built. 1922: Death of his mother. Visited Yugoslavia on holiday with the Carline family. On his return he moved to Hampstead in London, the area where the Carline's lived. 1923: Stayed for a short period with Henry Lamb in Dorset where he worked on some ideas for decorating a chapel. Lamb was so impressed that he introduced him to the Behrand family who had decided to build a memorial chapel to Mary's brother who had been killed in the First World War. Returned to Hampstead in October where he worked in Lamb's studio at the Vale Hotel. 1925: Birth of his first daughter Shirin. 1927: His painting "The Resurrection, Cookham" was exhibited at the Goupil Gallery. It was purchased by the Duveen Painting Fund and presented to the Tate gallery. The Spencer's then moved to Burghclere where he could concentrate on his paintings for the Sandham Memorial Chapel. 1930: Birth of his second daughter Unity. 1931: The family moved back to Cookham to a substantial house called "Lindworth". 1932: He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He was also chosen to exhibit at the Biennale in Venice. He then had an idea he would like to create his own building "The Church House" and all his non-commissioned work was to be for this major project, which unfortunately never got built. 1933: Visited Switzerland. 1935: Resigned form the Royal Academy after the rejection of his paintings "St. Francis and the Birds" and "The Dustman or the Lovers" by the hanging Committee. 1937: After divorcing Hilda Carline he married Patricia Preece though they never lived together and never consummated the marriage. The honeymoon was spent in St. Ives in Cornwall. Patricia an amateur artist herself was to become one of his most famous models. 1938: Again exhibited at the Venice Biennale. Stayed in Hampstead with friends. 1940: He was commissioned during the Second World War by the War Artist's Advisory Committee to paint scenes at the Lithgow shipbuilding yard in Port Glasgow, Scotland. 1942: Returned to Cookham where he stayed with his cousin,although he still made frequent trips to the Lithgow yard. 1945: Moved to Cliveden View in Cookham. 1947: Sandham Memorial Chapel was presented to the National Trust. 1950: Awarded the C.B.E. Rejoined the Royal Academy and elected as a full Member. Death of Hilda after a long period of illness. 1954: Visited China as part of a cultural delegation. 1955: Major retrospective Exhibition of his work held at the Tate Gallery in London. 1958: Knighted by the Queen. Elected an Associate of the Royal College of Art. 1959: Moved back into the house of his childhood now renamed "Fernley" Marriage: 1925 to Hilda Carline at Wangford, Suffolk. (divorced 1937). 1937 to Patricia Preece, although they never lived together or consummated the marriage. Places of Interest: LONDON: Tate Britain. BERKSHIRE: Stanley Spencer Museum, Cookham-on-Thames. HAMPSHIRE: Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere. (NT). Date and Place of Death: 14th December 1959, Canadian War Memorial Hospital Cliveden, Berkshire, England. Age at Death: 68. Site of Grave: Village Churchyard, Cookham-on-Thames, Berkshire, England.