CRITTALL, Walter Francis

1887 - 1956

Walter Francis Crittall was born at 27 Bank Street, Braintee, Essex on 2 July 1887, one of the four children of Francis Henry Crittall (1860-9 March 1935), a manager in the family hardware firm and window manufacturers, and his wife Ellen Laura Carter (1863-9 June 1934), daughter of George Carter, who married at Aston, Birmingham on 6 September 1883. In 1891, Walter was a 3-year-old, living at Braintree with his parents, 30-year-old Francis and 27-year-old Ellen, and his two siblings, 5-year-old Miriam and Richard Valentine George Crittall (1884-1961), later the 1st and last Baron Braintree. Walter trained at St John's Wood School of Art and won a prize at Essex Art and Craft at Chelmsford in October 1911 for a watercolour. He married at the Catholic Apostolic Church, Chelmsford, Essex on 24 September 1910, Christine May Luckin (1882-20 January 1927), daughter of the late James Luckin of Chelmsford, an accountant, and in 1911, a 23-year-old engineer's designer with the family firm, living at London Road, Braintree with his 25-year-old wife, together with his brother, 14-year-old Daniel Frederick Crittall. His wife Christine died at Alcoates, High Garrett, Braintree on 20 January 1927, aged 40, leaving a son John and a daughter Elizabeth and the following year, Walter married secondly at Marylebone, London on 31 August 1928, Mary Duke Gordon (25 March 1893-26 May 1987). During the late 1920s, Walter became friends with artist George Clausen and Clausen painted Walter's portrait which was exhibited in the 1936 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (665). Crittall, a competent artist and known as 'Mr Pink', lived at Great Easton, Essex and had a second home on the coast at Southwold in Suffolk, a favourite of early and mid-20th century artists, and he co-founded The Sole Bay Group and, no doubt attracted by the philanthropy of Crittall and the fame of Clausen, many artists gathered around the two 'founders' including Arnesby Brown, Hilda Carline and Richard Carline (1986-1980), Thomas Cantrell Dugdale, Russell Flint (1880-1969), George Mostyn and Gilbert Spencer. The Group's summertime exhibitions were held in both Southwold and Aldeburgh, but the Group disbanded about the time of the outbreak of the Second World War. Crittall also exhibited at Great Cranfield Artists Society and at the Braintree Institute, in Essex. In 1939, Crittall was a technical director, living at New Farm, Great Easton, Dunmow, Essex with his wife Mary and daughter Christine Elizabeth (25 March 1915-2 August 2005), a secretary. Walter Francis Crittall died at New Farm, Great Easton on 11 May 1956, aged 68.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from New Farm, Great Easton, Essex
1950 1178 The Bund, Shanghai, 1949 – dry point

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Works by This Artist