Biographies

Francis Henry Newbery (1855 – 1946) He was born at Membury in Devon and studied at the Bridport Art School and the Royal College of Art in London.In 1885 Francis Newbery became Director of the School and under his energetic direction it expanded so considerably that in 1896 the Governors announced a competition for the design of the new building. With Newbery’s help, the prize was awarded to his former student, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, only 28 at the time, and working as a draftsman in the Glasgow architect’s firm of Honeyman and Keppie. Mackintosh went on to become a giant of modernist architecture and design. Newbery married the talented Jessie Rowat, who was gifted in applied art, especially embroidery. He exhibited his work at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, two Paris Salons, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Examples of his work went to galleries in Turin, Venice and Munich, Exeter, Newcastle, Paisley and Glasgow. When he retired in 1917 he moved to Corfe Castle in Dorset where he died.