1. Lawrence Lee was best known for leading the project to create ten windows for the nave of the new Coventry Cathedral.
29 Facts About Lawrence Lee
1. 2.
Lawrence Lee's family moved to Weybridge where his father, William, a chauffeur and engineer, had a garage near to the Brooklands Race Track.
3.
Lawrence Lee's mother, Rose, was deeply religious and it was this influence that gave him the appreciation of biblical symbolism that became an important feature of his work.
4.
Lawrence Lee's parents divorced and Lawrence moved with his mother to New Malden.
5.
Lawrence Lee left school at 14, but won a scholarship to Kingston School of Art.
6.
Lawrence Lee's works included a range of craft and art work produced at Southside Studios in Clapham, London.
7.
Lawrence Lee worked part-time teaching at Kingston and Bromley schools of art.
8.
Lawrence Lee joined the Royal Army Medical Corps but transferred to the Royal Artillery, serving as an anti-aircraft gunner for a while.
9.
Lawrence Lee was promoted from cadet to Second Lieutenant in June 1942.
10.
Lawrence Lee subsequently served in North Africa and Italy, seeing action at the battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in February 1943 and in the Allied landings at Salerno later that year.
11.
Lawrence Lee was transferred to the Army Educational Service in Italy in February 1945, maintaining his rank of Lieutenant, and ran courses in art and culture.
12.
Lawrence Lee sketched and painted throughout the war, capturing an eruption of Mount Vesuvius whilst in Italy.
13.
On leaving the army, Lawrence Lee returned to Travers' commercial studio as a chief assistant alongside John E Crawford.
14.
Lawrence Lee succeeded Travers as the RCA's Head of Stained Glass, where he served until 1968.
15.
Lawrence Lee paid homage to his military career making several contributions to the Royal Military Academy Chapel at Sandhurst.
16.
Whilst respecting the historic traditions of the craft, Lawrence Lee was interested in the new possibilities afforded by improvements in adhesives.
17.
Lawrence Lee was interested in all forms of glass including slab glass and the dalle de verre technique.
18.
About this time, Spence received an invitation from Lawrence Lee to act as external examiner at the RCA.
19.
Lawrence Lee enlisted two former students; Geoffrey Clarke and Keith New, to collaborate on the designs.
20.
Coventry established Lawrence's reputation, and with it came greater acceptance of a more modern, abstract style which Lee was able to develop through the 1960s.
21.
Whilst the Coventry project was in progress, Lawrence Lee worked on smaller commissions.
22.
Lawrence Lee created three small windows for the Unitarian Church, Croydon in 1959.
23.
Lawrence Lee is alleged to have insisted to his RCA students that "doves representing the Holy Spirit should not resemble stuffed pigeons".
24.
About thirty windows and panels, many of badges, in Guildford Cathedral are Lawrence Lee's work, installed at various times between 1974 and 1992.
25.
The church of St Mary the Virgin, Swanley has four two-light windows by Lawrence Lee completed between 1979 and 1982 showing St Michael and St Peter, the Annunciation, Visitation and Presentation.
26.
Lawrence Lee was unusual amongst artists in that he often included his assistant's initials in his signature glassmark.
27.
Lawrence Lee was a fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters.
28.
Lawrence Lee continued to work as a stained glass artist until the early 1990s.
29.
Lawrence Lee was survived by their sons, Stephen and Martin.