Lawrence Lee

Lawrence Stanley Lee (18 September 1909 – 25 April 2011) was a British stained glass artist whose work spanned the latter half of the 20th century. He was best known for leading the project to create ten windows for the nave of the new Coventry Cathedral. His other work includes windows at Guildford and Southwark Cathedrals as well as a great number of works elsewhere in the UK, and some in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Early life Lee was born in Chelsea Hospital for Women on 18 September 1909. His family moved to Weybridge where his father, William, a chauffeur and engineer, had a garage near the Brooklands Race Track. Lawrence'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.

He left school at 14, but won a scholarship to Kingston School of Art. A further award in 1927 enabled him to attend the Royal College of Art, where he studied stained glass under Martin Travers, graduating in 1930. Lee joined the Royal Army Medical Corps but transferred to the Royal Artillery, serving as an anti-aircraft gunner for a while. He 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. He was transferred to the Army Educational Service in Italy in February 1945, maintaining his rank of Lieutenant, and ran courses in art and culture. He sketched and painted throughout the war, capturing an eruption of Mount Vesuvius whilst in Italy. The Imperial War Museum holds five watercolours of tanks and desert scenes, and, though some works were declined in 1942, a donation from James Dring was accepted and further works were subsequently purchased. Other work from this period is held in the Ashmolean Museum.

When Travers died in 1948 Lee and Crawford shared his open commissions, prompting Lee to establish his own studio; firstly in Sutton, later in New Malden, and finally, in 1963, at Penshurst, Kent. The whole project took six years. The dove representing the Holy Spirit was a recurring theme in many of Lee's works. Lee's knowledge of bird anatomy assisted in this. Lee is alleged to have insisted to his RCA students that "doves representing the Holy Spirit should not resemble stuffed pigeons". Ian Nairn, architect and critic, described it as "much the best modern glass in the county". Other secular work included a staircase window in Carpenters' Hall showing shields supported by a schematic tree completed in 1970, an abstract work above the entrance of Montreal General Hospital in 1971 and a large heraldic appliqué in the Glaziers Hall in 1975.

Other work completed about this time included in 1969 the east window of St Giles' Matlock, Derbyshire - the Incarnation expressed in symbols and, in King Charles the Martyr, Tunbridge Wells; Ruth "amid the alien corn".

About thirty windows and panels, many of badges, in Guildford Cathedral are Lee's work, installed at various times between 1974 and 1992. Another 1975 work joined Lee's 1962 "Benedicite" east window at the University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel.

Lee wrote several books on his craft. In 1967, shortly before leaving his post at RCA, he wrote Stained Glass, a handbook for artists. In 1976 he co-authored Stained Glass, An Illustrated Guide. His last book, written in 1977, The Appreciation of Stained Glass encapsulated his artistic philosophy.

In 1974 he was master of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and helped introduce measures to encourage practising stained-glass artists into the company at an affordable rate and encourage women into the profession. He was a fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters.

Later life Lee continued to work as a stained glass artist until the early 1990s. Lee's last big church window was completed in 1991 at St Martin's Brasted, Kent. His last window is in the library of Chew Valley School, Bristol, in memory of his grandson, killed in a car crash in 1994.

His wife, Dorothy died in 1996. Lawrence Stanley Lee died 25 April 2011 aged 101. He was survived by their sons, Stephen and Martin.