Colin Gill

Colin Unwin Gill (12 May 1892 – 16 November 1940) was an English artist who painted murals and portraits and is most notable for the work he produced as a war artist during the First World War.

Biography Early life Colin Gill was born at Bexleyheath in Kent. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and in 1913 became the first recipient of the Rome Scholarship in Decorative Painting to the British School at Rome. He was invalided back to England, with gas poisoning in March 1918, and spent several months recovering at the Hospital for Officers on the Isle of Wight.

In May 1918, Gill offered his services as a war artist but, initially was turned down and continued to work as a camouflage instructor. Later, the British War Memorials Committee did commission Gill to produce a large work for the proposed, but never built Hall of Remembrance. For this, he was released from his duties at the Camouflage School and returned to France on 7 November 1918 to do sketches, and other work, for his BWMC commission. He stayed in France until 14 December 1918, visiting Mons only hours after it had been retaken by the Allies. At the front, Gill spent a week stationed in an artillery battery, where he suffered from frostbite. The visit to France resulted in the paintings Evening, After a Push and Heavy Artillery, the painting intended for the Hall of Remembrance and, later, Canadian Observation Post for the Canadian War Memorials scheme. He also showed works at the Royal Academy from 1924 onwards and taught painting at the Royal College of Art from 1922 until 1925. Between 1925 and 1927, Gill worked on a large mural, King Alfred's long-ships defeat the Danes, 877, for St. Stephen's Hall in the Palace of Westminster. This was followed by mural commissions for the Bank of England, Essex County Hall in Chelmsford and Northampton Guildhall. In 1938, under the name Richard Saxby, Gill with his wife Una Long published the book Five Came to London. In 1939, he received a commission to paint murals at the Johannesburg Magistrates' Courts and it was in South Africa, in November 1940, that he died, aged 48, of an illness.