ROSE, Gerald Hembdon Seymour

1935 - 2023

Gerald Hembdon Seymour Rose was born in Hong Kong on 27 July 1935, son of Henley Hembdon Rose (1897-22 June 1955), a civil servant, who was born at Lowestoft, Suffolk, and his wife Rachel Grace née Law (1911-1944), who married in Hong Kong, and in 1938 they were living at Selby House, Selby Street, Lowestoft when they returned to Hong Kong. Gerald's father was a warrant officer in the army at Hong Kong and when the Japanese invaded in 1942, his father was taken prisoner and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp, when their mother Rachel, who was born in Borneo and Gerald and his sister Dawn Mary (born 16 September 1931), were interned in Stanley Internment Camp for civilians in Hong Kong. Conditions at the Camp were difficult, and diseases were prevalent, and his mother died at the camp aged only 34. After the war, Henley and his family returned Lowestoft, where Gerald attended Lowestoft School of Arts and Crafts and his father Henley died at 74 Park Road, Lowestoft in 1955. At Lowestoft, Gerald was a founder member of the short lived second Lowestoft Art Club with Wilfred Sutton and others but it failed after about six months but later was resurrected by Wilfred Sutton. Gerald was a student at the Royal Academy Schools 1955-1959, when visiting lecturers included Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), Carel Weight (1908-1997) and John Minton (1917-1957). Gerald married at Lowestoft in 1955, a fellow student, Elizabeth Jane Pretty (30 June 1933-16 March 2020), who was born at Lowestoft, and together they began to produce children's books, Elizabeth writing and Gerald illustrating and 'How St Francis Tamed the Wolf' was published by Faber in 1958. A British illustrator of children's books, Gerald won the 1960 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject, the book was 'Old Winkle and the Seagulls', written by his wife Elizabeth and published by Faber and Faber. Gerald was a commended runner-up for the Greenaway Medal next year, when the librarians introduced the distinction, recognising 'Wuffles Goes to Town'. A teacher of drawing and painting at Blackpool College of Art, 1960-1964, and teacher of graphic art at Maidstone College of Art, from 1965 and he and his wife went to live in East Sussex. Gerald Hembdon Seymour Rose died on 5 May 2023.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 64 Brondesbury Park, London NW 6
1956 101 Autumn Evening
         551 Winter Landscape
from 76 Alexandra Road, London NW 8
1957 217 The Pier
         568 The Canal
1958 424 Sunday Afternoon
from 19 Moorway, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire
1959 113 Fishermen's Houses
1962 198 Bramble Hedge
         459 The Flower Tent
from 'Ballards Shaw', Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, Kent
1972 74 Flint Cliff
         469 White Cliff
1973 527 The Monkey Puzzle Tree

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Works by This Artist