Richard Scott

A Life


Biography



Early years - wartime & school



Richard Ridsdale Scott was born on 5th May 1938 in Bromley, Kent, where his early memories were dominated by wartime misfortunes, including a direct hit to the family home in a German bombing raid. He attended Bickley Park School before being sent to board at Cranbrook School. While this was not his happiest experience, he was able in later life to recall amusing schoolboy anecdotes which he recounted with his native raconteur’s wit.



1950s - Art school & army life



Samphire Cottage was purchased by Richard’s parents, Eric and Marjorie, in 1950, and Walberswick became the home base. Eric Ronald Scott, an accomplished watercolour painter, encouraged his talented only son into a career in art. On leaving school, Richard enrolled at Lowestoft College for a foundation course and from there he moved to Camberwell School of Art to take his National Diploma in Design. National Service came as an unavoidable interruption but, following basic training, Richard was posted to Jamaica for 18 happy months in the Royal Army Educational Corps.



1960s - Early career in art and engineering



Returning to Camberwell to be employed as a technician, Richard met sculpture student Lesley Munkman and they were married at Potton, Bedfordshire, in July 1962. They lived in Camberwell Grove, while Richard shared a sculpture studio with John Ravera in Soho’s Kingly Street. At this time, Richard embarked on a new career designing and constructing sports cars with two amateurs in a small lock-up in Lulworth Road, Nunhead, before turning professional with Diva Cars. Richard went on to establish Centaur Engineering after he and Lesley moved to Walberswick in 1965 following the birth of the first of their two daughters. Operating from a workshop in Halesworth, Suffolk, he designed and constructed 750-formula racing cars, a number of which are still racing today.



1970s-1990s - Teaching career, Ipswich & beyond



As a natural and enthusiastic educator, Richard taught adult art classes and residential courses for many years. In 1971 he took up a part-time teaching position in the School of Art & Design at the then Ipswich Civic College, later Suffolk College, going full-time in 1982, where he lectured until he retired in 1995. He and colleague Paul Bruce wrote High Street Heyday, a history of the art school.



Richard was a founder member and president of The Suffolk Group, served as president of Southwold Art Circle, and president of the Ipswich Art Society. He exhibited solo and in numerous shared exhibitions. Combining his interests in and knowledge of art and local history, he contributed chapters to various art history books and wrote The Walberswick Enigma, and the definitive Artists at Walberswick: East Anglian Interludes 1880-2000. As an enthusiastic member of the Walberswick Local History Group, he was the leading authority on, and champion of, the Walberswick Scroll. Convinced of the historical interest and importance of this unique artefact, he was determined that it should remain intact, preserved, and held in the village for careful public view. Despite the ill health of his later years, he devoted much time and energy to this project as a lasting gift to the village he loved.



1990s-2020 - Walberswick, painting & local history



Richard Scott