BANBURY, Ralph

1913 - 1951

Ralph Cecil Banbury was born at Fawkham Lodge, Kent on 9 June 1913 and baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Fawkham on 9 August 1913, eldest son of Ralph Edgar Banbury (2 January 1881-31 December 1957), a stockbroker, and his first wife Cicely Phoebe Haig (1880-15 February 1918), who married at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge on 26 April 1910. Ralph, senior, married secondly at Holy Trinity Church, Sloan Street, London on 29 April 1924 Violet Victoria Phipps, daughter of Charles Nicholas Paul Phipps. In 1921 young Ralph was living at 75 Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea, London the home of his grandfather Arthur Balfour Haig Hownel Witchell, Extra Equerry to the King. Ralph enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1935 where he mixed with many artists, including Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines and Lucian Freud. Ralph visited Pound Farm, the home of Cedric and Lett’s before their move to Benton End and Ralph was one of the first pupils at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in early 1937 at Pound Farm which burned to the ground in 1939 and at their new home at Benton End in Hadleigh, Suffolk. Ian Brinkworth was one of the teachers and Ralph was a part time manager of the school helping Cedric and Lett, and working with Millie Hayes, the housekeeper at Benton End. Ralph Banburymarried at Westminster in 1945 Florence Leila St Clair-Keith (4 July 1918-19 July 2002) and had a son Nigel Graham Cedric Peregine born in 1948. His mother was living at Yew Tree Cottage, Henley near Ipswich on 3 February 1951 when Ralph was teaching at Benton End. Ralph Cecil Banbury gassed himself at 97 Ebury Street, Southwest London and died at the Westminster Hospital on 22 August 1951.

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Works by This Artist