The Western Union Fleet, Mount's Bay 1949

Charles W Simpson RI, 1885 - 1971

Born in Camberley, Surrey, Simpson turned to painting when a riding accident prevented him from following a military career.

He studied at the School of Painting in Bushey under the animal painter Lucy Kemp-Welch, and later attended the Atelier Julian in Paris (1910). He was particularly drawn to painting horses, which he developed by working with Alfred Munnings in Norfolk in the early 1900s; it was Munnings who encouraged him to visit Cornwall.

In 1913 Simpson married fellow artist Ruth Alison and settled in Newlyn. The family, including their daughter Leonora, later lived for a while at ‘Bodriggy’, Lamorna. They moved to London in 1924 but returned to Cornwall in 1931, living for a short while at ‘Duncans’ in Lamorna before settling in the Alverton area of Penzance.

Simpson was particularly known for his paintings of birds and animals, which were both exhibited (including at the Royal Academy) and used as illustrations for books and for magazines such as ‘Country Life’.