RUTHERFORD, Rosemary

1912 - 1972

Rosemary Ellen Rutherford was born at The Parsonage, Bartley Green Lane, Northfield, Kings Norton, Worcester on 1 September 1912, daughter of Revd John Finlay Rutherford (30 June 1878-5 March 1965) and his wife Florence Ellen Edge (29 January 1872-26 November 1954), elder daughter of the late Charles Allarton Edge, who married at Holy Trinity Church, The Lickey, Bromsgrove, Worcester on 29 September 1908. The family moved to Broomfield, Chelmsford after her father became the vicar of St Mary with St Leonard's Church in 1929. Rosemary studied at the Slade School of Fine Art under Vladimir Polunin (1880– 1 March 1957) and in 1939 an artist and part-time teacher at St Cedds School, Chelmsford, Essex living at The Vicarage, Broomfield with her parents. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Rosemary joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross when she performed a variety of jobs, including driving a mobile canteen round gun batteries on the east coast and working as a nurse in the Royal Naval Hospitals at Chatham and Haslar (Gosport) and other Royal Naval auxiliary hospitals. Keen to record her experience in an official capacity she obtained permission from the War Artists Advisory Committee and went on to create a stunning variety of images reflecting her wartime life reflecting her experiences in the UK and the Far East. She studied art and painting with Cedric Morris at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Hadleigh, Suffolk afterwards she retrained as a stained-glass designer and is principally known as a stained-glass artist. Rutherford established a studio at Walsham le Willows, Suffolk where her brother, John Allarton Edge Rutherford (1910-2005) was the incumbent. She exhibited her paintings at the New English Art Club and at the Royal Academy. Her stained-glass work is in the Suffolk churches at Boxford, Walsham le Willows and in Hinderclay, she also completed stained glass windows in several Essex churches and as far away as West Heslerton All Saints, Yorkshire in 1964. Rosemary Ellen Rutherford was of The Priory, Walsham le Willows, Suffolk when she died at Lambeth, London on 20 June 1972, she was unmarried. A memorial exhibition was held at Minories in Colchester the same year.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Broomfield Vicarage, Chelmsford
1937 715 In the Larder
from 47 Palace Gardens Terrace, West London
1947 144 Late Roses

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Works by This Artist