Sir Alan Charles Laurence Whistler (21 January 1912 – 19 December 2000) was a British glass engraver and poet. He was both the first President of the British Guild of Glass Engravers and the first recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Early life

Whistler was a son of builder and estate agent Henry Whistler and Helen Frances Mary, daughter of Rev. Charles Slegg Ward, vicar of

Wootton St Lawrence Wootton St Lawrence is a small village in the civil parish of Wootton St Lawrence with Ramsdell, in Hampshire, England, west of Basingstoke. The name is derived from the Old English ''wudu tun'' meaning woodland settlement or farm. History T ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, whose wife, Jessy, was granddaughter of the

goldsmith A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...

and

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...

Paul Storr Paul Storr (baptised 28 October 1770 in London – 18 March 1844 in London) was an English goldsmith and silversmith working in the Neoclassical style, Neoclassical and other styles during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Hi ...

Career

In 1935, Whistler became the first recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry. Verse works of his included 'The Emperor Heart' ; 'Four Walls'; 'Armed October and other Poems'; and 'In Time of Suspense', in 1940, published by

William Heinemann William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London. Early life On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...

. He also wrote a biography, '

Sir John Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restora ...

, Architect and Dramatist'. However, he began engraving to supplement his income, and later largely turned away from verse. He engraved on goblets and bowls blown to his own designs, and (increasingly, as he became more celebrated) on large-scale panels and windows for churches and private houses. He also engraved on three-sided prisms, some of them designed to revolve on a small turntable so that the prism's internal reflections completed the image. The best-known of these was done as a memorial to his elder brother,

Rex Whistler Reginald John "Rex" Whistler (24 June 190518 July 1944) was a British artist, who painted murals and society portraits, and designed theatrical costumes. He was killed in action in Normandy in World War II. Whistler was the brother of poet and ...

. His early works include a casket for

the Queen Mother ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, and a hinged glass triptych to hold her daily schedule. Other engravings of his can be found, for example, in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

, where his family lived during part of his childhood, including a pair of memorial panels with quotations by T. S. Eliot, and the Rex Prism in the Morning Chapel, both in Salisbury Cathedral; at the Ashmolean Museum; at Balliol College, Oxford where he was an undergraduate, and St Hugh's College, Oxford, where he also designed the Swan Gates leading from the college grounds onto Canterbury Road; at Stowe House in Stowe, Buckinghamshire; at the village church of St Nicholas at

Moreton, Dorset Moreton is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated on the River Frome about east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil parish had 158 households and a population of 373. It has a number of long distance footpaths and cyc ...

, where every window was engraved by him over about 30 years; and in the

Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...

(USA). In 1947, Whistler created one of the wedding gifts for Princess Elizabeth, a glass goblet engraved with the words of a 1613 poem by

Thomas Campion Thomas Campion (sometimes spelled Campian; 12 February 1567 – 1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and physician. He was born in London, educated at Cambridge, studied law in Gray's inn. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques ...

, written for the marriage of Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

Honours

Whistler's many honours included an OBE in the 1955 New Years Honours List and a

CBE 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 ...

in the 1973 Queen's Birthday Honours List. In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours List, not long before his death at the age of 88, he was created a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

. In 1975, he became the first President of the newly founded British

Guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

of Glass Engravers.

Personal life

In 1939, Whistler married the actress Jill Furse. Their son, Simon (1940–2005) was a musician and also a notable glass engraver. Jill died in 1944, of blood poisoning, soon after giving birth to a daughter Caroline; Laurence's brother,

, died the same year. In 1950, he married Jill's younger sister, Theresa (1927–2007), and they had two children Daniel and Frances; the marriage was later dissolved. In 1987, he married a third time to Carol Dawson, but was divorced in 1991. For much of his life he lived at Little Place, Silver Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset.

References

*''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Whistler, Sir (Alan Charles) Laurence (1912–2000), glass engraver, writer, and architectural historian, by Robin Ravilious *''The Initials in the Heart''. Michael Russell Publishing Ltd. (June 2000) *''Point Engraving on Glass'' (The Decorative Arts Library). Walker Books Ltd. (September 1997), *''The Laughter and the Urn: The Life of Rex Whistler''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (January 1986) *''The Image on the Glass''. Cupid Press (1975), *''Stowe: Guide to the Gardens''. E. N. Hillier & Sons, 3rd (further revised) edition (January 1, 1974) {{DEFAULTSORT:Whistler, Laurence 1912 births 2000 deaths English engravers Glass engravers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Place of birth missing Place of death missing 20th-century English poets English male poets 20th-century English male writers English biographers Male biographers British glass artists 20th-century engravers