Rex Whistler (b. June 24, 1905 in Eltham, Kent - July 18, 1944), Reginald John 'Rex' Whistler. English Artist, designer and illustrator. June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Eltham, London, England Eltham, New Zealand, Taranaki, New Zealand Eltham, Victoria, Australia This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... Look up artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Rex Whistler was the son of Henry and Helen Frances Mary Whistler. He was sent to board at Haileybury in May 1919 where he began to show a precocious talent for art, providing set designs for play productions and giving away sketches to prefects in lieu of "dates" (a punishment unique to Haileybury, similar to "lines" but whereby offenders are required to write out long, set lists of historical dates). Coat of arms of Haileybury College This article refers to the school in England. ...

After Haileybury the young Whistler was accepted at the Royal Academy but disliked the regime there and was "sacked for incompetence". He then proceeded to study at the Slade School of Art where he met The Honourable Stephen Tennant, soon to become one of his best friends and a model for some of the figures in his works. Through Tennant, he later met the poet Siegfried Sassoon and his wife Hester, to both of whom Whistler became very close. This article refers to an art institution in London. ... Part of the University College London, the Slade School of Art was founded in 1868 as the result of an endowment by Felix Slade. ... Stephen Tennant (21 April 1906 - 28 February 1987) was a British aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle. ... Siegfried Sassoon, 1916 Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (September 8, 1886 – September 1, 1967) was an English poet and author. ...

Upon leaving the Slade he burst into a dazzling career as a professional artist. His work encompassed all areas of art and design. From the West End Theatre to book illustration (including works by Evelyn Waugh and Walter de la Mare) and mural and trompe l'oeil painting. Paintings at Port Lympne, Plas Newydd and Dorneywood amongst others, show his outstanding talent in this genre. During his time at Plas Newydd he may well have become the lover of the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Anglesey, the owner of the house who had commissioned him to undertake the decorative scheme. Whister and Lady Caroline Paget are known to have become very close friends and he painted numerous portraits of her, including a startling nude. Whether this painting was actually posed for or whether it was how Rex imagined her naked is a matter of debate. Evelyn Waugh, as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Arthur Evelyn St. ... Walter John de la Mare, OM (April 25, 1873 - June 22, 1956), was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist, probably best remembered (though not necessarily justly so) for his works for children. ... Salle des illustres, ceiling painting, by Jean André Rixens. ... Trompe-lÅ“il mural on building in Narbonne, France. ... Plâs Newydd or Plas Newydd, located in Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, Wales, is the country seat of the Marquess of Anglesey ; the familys other seat being at Beaudesert, Staffordshire. ... Dorneywood is a moderately large Queen Anne style house built in 1920, near Burnham in Buckinghamshire. ... Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey GCVO (14 April 1885–21 February 1947) was a British peer. ... Lady (Alexandra Mary Cecilia) Caroline Paget (15 June 1913 - 22 May 1973) was the daughter of Sir Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey and Lady Victoria Marjorie Harriet Manners. ...

His most noted work during the early part of his career was for the Cafe at the Tate Gallery completed in 1927 when he was only 22. He was commissioned to produced posters and illustrations for Shell Petroleum and the Radio Times. He also made designs for Wedgwood china based on drawings he made of the Devon village of Clovelly. Whistler's elegance and wit ensured his success as a portrait artist among the fashionable and he painted many of members of London society, including Edith Sitwell, Cecil Beaton and the other members of the set which he belonged to and which became known as the "Bright Young Things". Tate Britain is a part of the Tate Gallery in Britain, along with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. ... Current Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ... Josiah Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood (July 12, 1730 – January 3, 1795) was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. ... Devon is a large county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ... A village is a human residential settlement commonly found in rural areas. ... Clovelly is a village on the north Devon coast, England near Bideford. ... Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic. ... Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (January 14, 1904 – January 18, 1980) was an English fashion and portrait photographer. ...

When war broke out, though he was 35, he was eager to join the army. He was commissioned into the Welsh Guards as Lieutenant 131651. His artistic talent, far from being a stumbling block to his military career, was greatly appreciated and he was able to find time to continue some of his work, including a notable self portrait in uniform now in the National Army Museum. In 1944 he was sent to France following the D-Day Landings in 1944. The Welsh Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division. ... The National Army Museum is the British Armys central museum. ... Land on Normandy In military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...

In July he was with the 2nd (Armoured) Battalion in Normandy as the invasion force was poised to break out of the salient east of Caen. On the hot and stuffy 18th July his tank, after crossing a railway line, drove over some felled telegraph wires beside the railway, which became entangled in its tracks. He and the crew got out to free the tank from the wire when a German machine gunner opened fire on them, preventing them from getting back into their tank. Whistler dashed across an open space of 60 yards to instruct its commander, a sergeant Lewis Sherlock, to return the fire. As he climbed down from Sherlock's tank a mortar bomb exploded beside him and killed him instantly, throwing him into the air. He was the first fatality suffered by the Battalion in the Normandy Campaign. The two free tanks of his troop carried out their dead commander's orders before returning to lay out his corpse beside a nearby hedge, after first having removed his personal belongings. Rex's neck had been broken, but there was not a mark on his body. The troop was then immediately called away to act as infantry support, so when that evening Sherlock obtained permission to locate and bury Rex Whistler, he found that this had already been done by an officer of the Green Jackets, a regiment in which Whistler's younger brother, Laurence (an acclaimed glass engraver and poet) was serving. Among the many works of art produced by Rex Whistler during his time in the forces was a fine pencil portrait of Sergeant Sherlock. Mont Saint Michel, one of the famous symbols of Normandy. ... Combatants Allied Powers Nazi Germany Commanders Bernard Montgomery, Miles Dempsey, Richard OConnor, Guy Simonds Edgar Feuchtinger, Erwin Rommel, Gerd von Rundstedt, Günther von Kluge Strength 2nd British Army, 51st Highland Division, 11th British Armoured divison, 7th British Armoured Divison, Polish 1st Armoured Division, VIII British Corps, Royal Air... Cap badge of the Royal Green Jackets The Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) is an infantry regiment of the British Army, one of two within the Light Division (the other being The Light Infantry). ... Alan Charles Laurence Whistler (January 21, 1912-December 19, 2000) (always referred to as Laurence Whistler) was a British poet and artist, who devoted himself to glass engraving, including some celebrated examples of stained glass. ...

Later the body of Rex Whistler was moved to a grave in the Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery in Calvados, about two miles from the place where he was killed on his first day in action. His grave can still be found there today in the immaculately kept Military Cemetery. Banneville-la-Campagne is a commune of the Calvados département, in the Basse-Normandie France. ... For the apple brandy produced in the region, see Calvados (spirit). ...

Works

• An Anthology Of Mine (published posthumously), Hamish Hamilton, London, (1981)

References

• Edith Olivier, In Pursuit of Rare Meats, being the story of the Rex Whistler Murals on the Tate Gallery Restaurant, H.M.S.O. (1954)
• Laurence Whistler, Rex Whistler, his Life and his Drawings, London, (1948)
• Laurence Whistler and Ronald Fuller, The Work of Rex Whistler, Batsford, London, (1960)
• Laurence Whistler, The Laughter and the Urn. The Life of Rex Whistler, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, (1985)
• Andrew Hambling, Haileybury in Two World Wars, The Haileybury Society, Haileybury, Hertford, (2002)
• Stephen Calloway, Rex Whistler The Triumph of Fancy, Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove, (2006),(Exhibition Catalogue)

Alan Charles Laurence Whistler (January 21, 1912-December 19, 2000) (always referred to as Laurence Whistler) was a British poet and artist, who devoted himself to glass engraving, including some celebrated examples of stained glass. ... Alan Charles Laurence Whistler (January 21, 1912-December 19, 2000) (always referred to as Laurence Whistler) was a British poet and artist, who devoted himself to glass engraving, including some celebrated examples of stained glass. ... Alan Charles Laurence Whistler (January 21, 1912-December 19, 2000) (always referred to as Laurence Whistler) was a British poet and artist, who devoted himself to glass engraving, including some celebrated examples of stained glass. ...

External links

• Various Portraits of Rex Whistler including photographs by Cecil Beaton