Walter Thomas Monnington

Monnington was the son of a barrister and although he was born in Westminster, London, he grew up in Sussex before spending time on a farm school at Ross-on-Wye. From 1918 to 1922, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and in 1922 won a three-year scholarship in Decorative Painting to the British School at Rome. In April 1924 Monnington married his fellow art student Winifred Knights. From 1925 to 1937 Monnington lived in London where he taught part-time at the Royal College of Art and, until 1939, at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1931 he completed Supper at Emmaus for a church in Bolton. Monnington also began to receive commissions for portraits including those of Stanley Baldwin and Earl Jellicoe amongst others. However, Monnington's finished portrait of Jellcoe was returned to him following objections from Countess Jellicoe, who took exception to the portrayal of her husband. ==World War II==

In May 1939, Monnington joined the Directorate of Camouflage at Leamington Spa where he worked on camouflage designs for airfields and factories. He also, after a chance meeting with Barnes Wallis, contributed design improvements, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, to a new heavy bomber aircraft then being developed which later became the Avro Lancaster. In 1943 Monnington, who had taken flying lessons before the war, wrote to the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, complaining of the lack of an aerial perspective among the works WAAC had so far commissioned. and especially those such as Fighter Affiliation. from a perspective inside the aircraft, were to be among the most important such images in the WAAC collection. ==Post-war career==

When the war ended, Monnington taught at the Camberwell School of Art from 1947 for four years and then at the Slade School of Art until 1967. Following his appointment as president of the Royal Academy in 1966, he was knighted in 1967. Monnington was the first president of the academy to produce abstract art and was highly effective in the role doing much to restore the academy's ailing fortunes. He served as president until his death in London on 7 January 1976. ==Honours==

• 1947 – Associate of the Royal Academy • 1939 – Member of the Royal Academy • 1957 – Fellow of University College London • 1966 – President of the Royal Academy • 1967 – Knighthood. ==References==