After the Royal Academy the Royal Watercolour Society is the oldest artistic society in Great Britain, but by the mid 1970s it had fallen on hard times, and Ernest, who had been elected in 1962, wanted to do something about that. In 1972 he met Sir Gerald Glover at an art exhibition in Kent, and Sir Gerald told him that if the RWS was ever in a fix to let him know. By this time the society was desperate to find new premises, so on a terribly wet evening Ernest, who said that he was soaked when he arrived, went to visit Glover at his home in Park Lane. As a result of a phone call from Glover the architects, who were drawing up plans for a new development on the South Bank, for Southwark Council, happily agreed to include a Royal Society in their building. Ernest, who was President of the Society from 1976 to 1984, was then thrilled and delighted to welcome and escort the Queen when she opened Bankside Gallery in 1980.

I, in turn, was very pleased to be invited, together with my husband and son, to a Private View at Bankside and to be escorted by Ernest a few years later, he was a true gentleman and I was treated as if I were the Queen!!

Perhaps, if people who might read this go to this exhibition they could say a silent ‘thank you’ to Ernest as the gallery would not be there if it had not been for him. Thank you gentle author once again for a piece which really has brought tears to my eyes. Ernest died in 2009 and I so much miss my visits to his lovely home in Kent which he and his wife, the print maker, Eileen Messenger, restored mostly by themselves.

Pauline.

GA, what a delightful exhibit – some whimsical scenes with no abstractions.

If I recall, The Death of Munro by Clive Hicks-Jenkins reminds me of a similar “sculpture” in the V & A in London.

Really enjoyed all prints by Angie Lewin, especially “Goat’s Beard & Grasses.” Thanks!