Brian Bennett MA FROI (OW 1945)

(24 Sept 1927 – 21 Sept 2022)

We are most grateful to Tom Stanier (Honorary OW, son of Bob and Maida Stanier) for the following obituary:

Brian was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father originally ran a small drapery shop in Olney but in the Depression he lost everything. He moved to Oxford looking for work and in Cowley became a sewing machine salesman. Cowley was where Brian grew up – light years away from rarefied North Oxford – but he had the good fortune to attend East Oxford Council Boys school.

I use the word ‘good’ advisedly because the school’s headmaster was the charismatic, Greening Lambourne , later to be described by the historian H.A.L.Fisher as ‘the greatest elementary teacher in the United Kingdom’. This excellent schooling enabled Brian to win a scholarship to Magdalen College School (this was just before the days of Direct Grant Schools ) where he then came under the influence of another inspirational figure, Art Master, Peter Greenham. Greenham later enjoyed great success as a portrait painter and became Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools. He was to be a lifelong friend and mentor to Brian.

Brian flourished at MCS – he was among other things Victor Ludorum on Sports Day – and duly gained a place at Magdalen College. He graduated with a History Degree, but his real passion was always painting, and he combined this with serving as Head of Art at Berkhamsted School for over 30 years. He was an excellent teacher – as you can tell if you click on the following link to see a 20” film I made with Brian. In it, he talks eloquently about his philosophy of painting while simultaneously creating wonderful things on the canvas.

‘Brian Bennett Tribute- celebrating the life of Brian Bennett’

Brian retired from the school job when he discovered , to his great satisfaction, that he could make more money from painting landscapes than from teaching. His particular loves (in no particular order) were plants and the Chilterns, and many of his paintings included both: the plants in the foreground , and the landscapes in the background. Brian became a highly respected member of the painting world and ended up as President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

Brian and his beloved wife, Margrit, lived in the same house in Berkhamsted for over 60 years, and although Margrit, as a fashion designer, spent a lot of time in Paris for starry exhibitions, she was always more than happy to return to her home base. She master-minded (or should that be mistress-minded?) the garden and was a brilliant cook. They were terrific company.

Brian lived long into his Nineties, but he never seemed to grow old. His hair remained spectacularly luxuriant – shades of Michael Heseltine- and his creative energy was astonishing. He continued painting to the very end of his life. In 2022 he opened two exhibitions of his work, at one of which I bought a painting he did of the Water Meadow Fritillaries at Magdalen. (It is on the wall in front of me as I write this obituary.) Brian attended the second exhibition in Aylesbury in person, and it went so well that four separate people commissioned him on the spot to paint further landscapes. Needless to say, this gave nonagenarian Brian intense gratification! Four days later he died peacefully. The commissions, alas, were never to be completed, but what a way to go.

It was a life well lived.

My mother, Maida Stanier, was the wife of the Master of Magdalen College School (Bob Stanier) and also a poet and a playwright.   She wrote over 200 poems that were published fortnightly in the Oxford Times, and she too found the Water Meadow Fritillaries a good subject. In her own way she was as adept with a pen as Brian was with a paintbrush, and the two of them were also good friends.

Water Meadows at Magdalen by Brian Bennett

HEY THERE!

By Maida Stanier

“I had seen them , of course, in their well-known Oxford haunt, Christ Church (sic) Meadows.”
Article on fritillaries in The Times, 29/4/1959.
But as every right-thinking Oxonian knows, the true home of fritillaries is in Magdalen Meadows

If there’s one thing that sends the adrenalin coursing through my capillaries,
It’s being publicly done out of snakesheads (or fritillaries).
‘Christchurch Meadows’ indeed!

I grant that the House to her Alma Mater a pillar is
Moreover, regarding the Road, her lusty artilleries
are a useful ally in need.

And in matter of daffodils, crocus and other ancillaries
Which embellish the term that is commonly known as Hilary’s
Christ Church does well, I concede.

But just as we connect Jamaica with rum, and Scotland,
I’m afraid, with distilleries
So , when it comes to snakesheads, or if you prefer it, fritillaries,
Christ Church is absolutely nowhere,  and Magdalen is miles in the lead.