WALKER, Leonard
Leonard Walker was born at Ealing, Middlesex on 10 March 1877, son of George Frederick Walker (1839-1881) and his wife Ellen Eliza Mary née Manners (1847-27 June 1926), who married at Bethnal Green, London in 1871. Leonard, at the age of 17, began a four year indenture with stained glass designer Leonard Augustus Pownall (Feb 1864-17 March 1926) and he studied at St John's Wood School of Art, where he later became the principal. Walker experimented with watercolor and etching, mediums that allowed him to explore fluid color layering and precise line work influenced by the era's academic styles and was elected a Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1915. His watercolor proficiency, informed his stained glass designs by simulating blended hues through glass plating which culminated in his first stained glass panels, designed and executed at age 21 for St Peter's Church in Brandon, Suffolk. In 1901 Leonard was a 24 year old artist living at 8 Carlingford Road, Hampstead with his 60-year-old widowed mother Ellen Eliza Mary, who was born at Sheffield and his siblings 25-year-old May (Ellen Eliza), who was born at Ealing and 22-year-old Bernard, a land surveyor, who was born at Hampstead. Leonard married at Hampstead in 1909 Amy Charlotte Dunn and in 1911 a 34-year-old married artist, living at 28 Kings College Road, Hampstead with his 32 year old wife Amy, who was born at Bayswater, they had issue including Renton Manners Walker (1912-10 December 2003) and a daughter who assisted in his business. In 1921 Leonard was a 44-year-old married artist living at 3 Camden Hill Mansions, Kensington with his 81-year-old widowed mother Ellen Eliza and a 45-year-old sister May. Walker's purpose-built stained glass studio was at 151a King Henry’s Road, Hampstead, and he had a loyal team of glaziers working with him and he collaborated with sculptor Gilbert William Bayes (4 April 1872–10 July 1953), on Bayes' first commission at Aldeburgh Church in Suffolk. Walker was also elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1913 and of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1915, and exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery, the Royal Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. Walker was an expert water-colourist and used it throughout his designs. The use of watercolours inspired his use of plated slab glass. The colours which swirl together in slab glass (plated together) bear similarities to the swirls of watercolours. It allowed Walker to form very distinctive design concepts. In 1939 a married artist living at Poplar Farm Caravan, Lessingham, Norfolk and there are some fine stained glass panels in St Andrew’s Church, Southburgh, and All Saint’s Church, East Tuddenham, Norfolk. Walker kept working right up until 1959, when he completed stained glass windows for Geldeston Church, Suffolk. Leonard Walker died on 13 June 1964.