Tristram Hillier

Tristram Paul Hillier (11 April 1905 – 18 January 1983) was an English surrealist painter. He was a member of the Unit One group led by Paul Nash.

Early life and education

Tristram Hillier was born on 11 April 1905 in Beijing, China, the youngest of the four children of Edward Guy Hillier (1857–1924), a banker and diplomat, and Ada Everett. In 1906, he ‘came to Europe from Peking for the first time at the age of six months in the company of my mother, my brother and [two] sisters, a Japanese ‘Amah’ and two Chinese servants’. The Amah was Tuk-San, a Roman Catholic convert, who was "the real influence in my life then and for many years later... and meant more to me ...than my own mother.

A Roman Catholic, he was educated at Downside School. In 1922 he returned to China to study the language, and visit his sister Madeline and Tuk-San five miles south of Sherborne, Dorset on 22 January 1983 (record number 732 in the Parish Registers of burials 1880–1985). A local journalist, Seth Dellow, has been maintaining the grave since 2023. It is not known why Hillier is buried at Glanvilles Wootton Church.

Works Works by Tristram Hillier are held in the collections of the Tate Gallery and many other public and private collections.