DOWNING, Thea Dorothy Spaul
As Dorothy Spaul Downing, she was born at Ipswich on 18 November 1918, daughter of Sidney Wilfred Downing (1883-30 October 1954), a commercial traveller, and his wife Frances Dora Spaul (1876-1950), daughter of Alexander Spaul, a motor engineer, who married at St Peter Parmentergate, Norwich on 10 March 1910, and in 1911 were living at 235 Bramford Road, Ipswich. Dorothy studied textile and industrial design at Ipswich School of Art, and later painting at Edinburgh College of Art and sometime during her career took the additional first name of Thea. As Thea Downing, in 1946 she exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition from Mount Street, Nottingham an oil 'Wellingon Circus'. She married at Nottingham Registry Office in April 1948, Frank Arthur Milnes (25 December 1908-1995), superintendent of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and at that time Thea was head of the Painting Department at the Nottingham College of Art. As Thea Dorothy Spaul Milnes, she died at Gloucester in 1996.