Thomas Balston (30 July 1883 – 4 October 1967)Who's Who, 1968-1969, A. & C. Black, 1968, p. 144 was a director of the publishers Duckworth and Co., and a noted scholar of English book production and illustration.Collection Title: Thomas Balston Papers, 1946-1948
Rare Book Literary & Historical Papers at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014. He was also an amateur painter, having studied under Mark Gertler.Who's Who in Art, vol. 14, The Art Trade Press Ltd, 1962, p. 29

Early years and education

Balston was born at Bearsted House,

Bearsted Bearsted ( , ) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish with railway station in mid-Kent, England, two miles (3.2 km) east of Maidstone town centre. Geography The village was historically concentrated around Church Lane a ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, fourth son of

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

-educated William Edward Balston and Emily Julia (née Whitehead). The Balston family had been paper-makers since the 18th century, entering business with the Whatman paper-making family. Their success in business led to social prominence and the Balstons were regarded as being amongst the gentry of their county. His paternal great-uncle was Rev.

Edward Balston Edward Balston (26 November 1817 – 29 November 1891) was an English schoolmaster, Church of England cleric, head master of Eton College from 1862 to 1868 and later Rector of Hitcham, Buckinghamshire, Vicar of Bakewell, Derbyshire, and Arc ...

, headmaster of

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

from 1862 to 1868. Balston was educated at

and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

. Before being

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1909, he served as tutor to Count Gianbattista Spaletti and his brother Count Cesare Spaletti in Italy. From 1912 to 1914, he was secretary to the publisher

T. Fisher Unwin T. Fisher Unwin was the London publishing house founded by Thomas Fisher Unwin, husband of British Liberal politician Jane Cobden in 1882. Unwin was a co-founder of the Johnson Club, formed 13 September 1884, to mark the hundred years since the ...

Military career

Balston was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

and an

O.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

by 1940, at which time he was a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on the Army's General List, having served during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

with the 12th

Gloucestershire Regiment The Gloucestershire Regiment, commonly referred to as the Glosters, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson's Regiment of Foot, which was raised in 1694 and later became the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

from 1914 to 1919, as a

staff captain Staff captain is the English translation of a number of military ranks: Historical use of the rank Czechoslovakia In the Czechoslovak Army, until 1953, Staff Captain ( cs, štábní kapitán, sk, štábny kapitán) was a senior captain ran ...

with the 96th Infantry Brigade from 1915 to 1917, and as

Deputy Assistant Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

to the 3rd Division and 3rd Brigade from 1917 to 1918 and 1918 to 1919 respectively. His service in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

came to an end when he was invalided out after three months due to suffering from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

, having been called to Southern Command as a staff captain.

Book illustration

At Duckworth from 1921 to 1934, Balston promoted the work of English

wood engravers Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

. He produced several books on the history of the subject.

Death

Balston died in 1967. He bequeathed his collection of pictures, drawings, and prints to

The Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charitable organization, charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for man ...

, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the Ashmolean Museum and other public institutions in Britain.Portrait of Thomas Balston by Mark Gertler
The Art Fund, 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014.

Papers

Papers from Thomas Balston relating to the Sitwells, published by Duckworths, are held at Washington State University. A small collection of Balston papers relating to

John Martin John Martin may refer to: Business *John Martin (businessman) (1820–1905), American lumberman and flour miller *John Charles Martin (fl. 1913–1931), American newspaper publisher *John Martin (publisher) (born 1930), American founder of Black ...

are held at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.

Selected publications

*''Sitwelliana. 1915–1927. A Handlist.'' Duckworth, London, 1928. (Compiler) *''The Life of Jonathan Martin, Incendiary of York Minster: With Some Account of Richard and William Martin''. London: Macmillan, 1945. *''John Martin, 1789–1854. His Life and Works''. Duckworth, London, 1947. *''The Wood Engravings of

Robert Gibbings Robert John Gibbings (23 March 1889 – 19 January 1958) was an Irish artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood engraver and sculptor, and for his books on travel and natural history.Martin J. Andrews, ''The Life and Work of R ...

''. Art and Technics, London, 1949. (Later edition Dent) *''English Wood Engraving, 1900–1950''. Art and Technics, London, 1951. *''William Balston: Paper Maker, 1759–1849''. Methuen, London, 1954. *''The Housekeeping Book of

Susanna Whatman Susanna Whatman (born Susanna Bosanquet) (23 January 1753 – 29 November 1814) was a British writer on household management who came to notice about 200 years after her birth. Life Susannah was born in 1753 in Hamburg. She was the daughter of J ...

1776-1800''. Geoffrey Bles, London, 1956. (Editor) Wood engravings by Frank Martin. *''James Whatman: Father & Son''. Methuen, London, 1957.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balston, Thomas 1883 births 1967 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of New College, Oxford English publishers (people) Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Military Cross Gloucestershire Regiment officers People from Bearsted British Army personnel of World War I English barristers English art historians 20th-century English businesspeople