Tynemouth – born Ernest Procter ARA (1885 – 1935), designer, illustrator and painter was the husband of Dod Procter (July 31^st) and was heavily involved in the Newlyn School of Art and also worked with Harold Harvey (May 19^th) to establish the Harvey-Procter School which offered offering tuition in watercolours and oils to locals and which operated throughout the 1920s.

Between 1907 and 1910, he was a student of Stanhope Forbes (November 18^th) at the Forbes’ School of Painting in Newlyn and also worked as an assistant to Stanhope and his wife Elizabeth Forbes (December 29^th) where he met Dod.  For eight years, from 1910, Ernest and Dod studied in Paris, marrying at the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. Both were influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and by the artists they became friendly with which included Renoir and Cézanne. During the First World War, Procter, a Quaker and a conscientious objector, served with the Friends’ Ambulance Unit but in 1918 the couple now with their son, Bill, returned to Newlyn. Procter concentrated on outdoor scenes including, notably, ‘The Helston Flora Dance’ (1926) and but also became renowned for his portraits with the most famous being of Sir Thomas Beecham and Frederick Delius (below left) which are in the National Portrait Gallery.

He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy and painted the allegorical The Zodiac (1925, below right) which is now exhibited in The Tate Gallery.

A friend of Father Bernard Walke, Rector of St. Hilary, (June 15^th) and his wife Annie Walke (July 6^th), he painted the four panels to front a choir stall at St. Hilary as part of a collective effort by the close friendship group of artists, Harold Harvey (May 19^th), Harold Knight (October 3^rd), Dame Laura Knight (July 7^th), Alethea Garstin (June 1^st) and, of course, Dod Procter.

In 1934, Procter was appointed Director of Studies in Design and Craft at the Glasgow School of Art but, tragically, died a year later after suffering a stroke.