William MacBride Childs (1869-1939) was the driving force behind the transformation of a college that Edith Morley once described as ‘insignificant and unknown’ (2016, p.97) into a fully-fledged university. Childs became Reading’s first Vice-Chancellor in 1926, only to retire three years later, when he was replaced by Franklin Sibly (later Sir Franklin).
Childs was only sixty on retirement, but had been a member of the College and University for thirty-years, Vice-Principal for three, Principal for twenty-three and Vice-Chancellor for three years. Now that the Royal Charter had been achieved, he felt that his mission was complete:
‘My innings had been a long one …. In December 1928, I was certain that in deciding to lay down my office at Michaelmas, 1929, I was acting rightly; and I have been certain of it ever since. I had done for Reading all I could; and when a man feels that, it is time for him to go.’ (Childs, 1933, p. 191)
An account of Childs’s retirement is to be found, not in his own memoir, but in the writings of his son, Hubert. Since 1922 Hubert’s father had been toying with the idea of preparing for retirement by building his own house, and in 1923 bought three acres of land near Grimsbury Castle in Hermitage, Berkshire. It was a monumental task and Childs Senior was no builder, but with the help of his sons and using the university vacations, Grimsbury Bank was ready for occupation by the summer of 1929.
It was at Grimsbury Bank that W. M. Childs sat for his official portrait as former Vice-Chancellor some years later.
The kennington portrait
‘It had always been intended to record Childs’s retirement in 1929 in the customary manner with the presentation of a portrait.’ (Holt, 1977, p. 100)
Childs suffered from poor health in 1936 and was seriously ill in 1937. By now some of his friends and former colleagues, as well as people connected with Wantage Hall, felt it was high time that the idea of a formal portrait should come to fruition.
Franklin Sibly, the then Vice-Chancellor, placed the responsibility in the hands of Anthony Betts (1897-1980), Head of the Fine Art Department. Betts was a friend of Eric Kennington (1888-1960) the renowned illustrator, portrait painter and official war artist, who was persuaded to carry out the commission at a beneficial rate. Records of the Friends of the University of Reading show that they contributed £50 (approximately £2,857 in today’s money) towards the project. The grant was awarded to Wantage Hall, however, and it isn’t clear exactly how the picture was financed.
Work began in November 1938 following a delay due to Kennington’s other commitments. The ‘great chair’ sporting the University’s coat of arms in which Childs was to be seated was transported to Grimsbury Bank.
According to Hubert Childs, Kennington’s approach was to work in his own studio from photographs and pastel sketches completed during sittings at Grimsbury. One such sketch has survived and is held in the University’s Art Collection, though the medium appears to be only partially pastel (the pink area in the image below).
At first, there was good progress, and there was a friendly rapport between artist and sitter. Early in 1939, however, work practically came to a standstill while Kennington was engaged by the War Office to advise on camouflage techniques in preparation for war.
With the delay, Childs became agitated until Kennington agreed to three final sittings. The portrait was completed in March 1939 but not before surviving a major hiccup that was still to be a source of hilarity in years to come.
The three graces?
Once the head was finished, all that remained was the background which the artist was able to paint in his own studio. When Dr and Mrs Childs inspected the portrait complete with background, however, it was clear that all was not well. Childs wrote to his son:
‘With the best intentions, Kennington put in a quite impossible background about which I will tell you some day. It had to come out.’ (H. Childs, 1976, p. 195)
According to both Professor Holt and Johnny Johnson in his Random Recollections, the background in question was a copy of a famous tapestry depicting the Three Graces. Hubert Childs, on the other hand, described it rather differently:
‘The quite impossible background was taken from a fifteenth-century tapestry in the Louvre, and figured young men and maidens disporting themselves.’ (p. 195)
Whatever the truth, presumably the figures were unclothed and therefore considered totally unsuitable for display in a male hall of residence. It was likely, as Hubert so delicately put it, ‘to give rise to ribald comment.’
The upshot was that Anthony Betts had to persuade Kennington to alter the background. Johnny Johnson, a future Registrar of the University, recalled it like this:
‘Poor old Anthony Betts, don’t think he quite knew what to do, but he said he would see to it and told Eric Kennington about this, who I think was slightly miffed! I think the proof of the fact he was slightly miffed is that he immediately painted out the tapestry that he had so very carefully painted in. He painted it out with black, and that’s why the portrait of Childs had a completely black background’ (Johnson & Sibly, c1984, p. 2)
In Hubert Childs’s version, Kennington was rather more than ‘slightly miffed’ and threatened to give up the commission, only to be pacified by Mrs Childs who was able to convince him to make the changes.
The presentation
Childs passed away on 21 June 1939, only three months after the completion of the portrait. The Vice-Chancellor’s Annual Report for 1938-39 recalled the presentation of the portrait to Wantage Hall, an institution that was particularly close to Childs’s heart, and where he had lived with his wife when it was first opened:
‘It was a source of peculiar gratification to the members of the University that Dr. Childs, with Mrs. Childs, was able to be present at Wantage Hall on May 13, when his portrait in oils was presented to the Hall, on behalf of former members of the Hall and the Friends of the University, by the Chancellor, Sir Samuel Hoare.’ (Proceedings, 1938-9, p. 32)
The presentation marked Childs’s final engagement at the University and his final speech. It was a considerable effort but he spoke enthusiastically about the contribution that Wantage Hall had made to the University community. He received a warm and attentive reception.
In his history of the University’s first fifty years, Professor Holt sees the portrait as being ‘of a dying man, his earlier fires now only aglow’ (p. 100). Nevertheless, we’ll leave the final word to the subject himself:
‘The portrait is generally regarded as a success. It is certainly a fine picture, not quite what I expected, or ideally would have preferred.’ (H. Childs quoting his father, 1976, p. 195)
Thanks
To Dr Hannah Lyons, Curator of the University Art Collection for help and support, and for providing access to the head and shoulders study.
Sources
Childs, H. (1976). W. M. Childs: an account of his life and work. Oxford: Alden Press.
Childs, W. M. (1933). Making a university: an account of the university movement at Reading. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
Holt, J. C. (1977). The University of Reading: the first fifty years. Reading: University of Reading Press.
Johnson, J. F. & Sibly, T. C. F. (c1984). Random Recollections of the University of Reading. Reading: University of Reading.
The Friends of the University of Reading. Record of grants awarded: http://thefriends.org.uk/friendsreport/grants-awarded/
University of Reading. Annual Statement by the Vice-Chancellor. Proceedings of the University, 1938-39.
