STONES, Gerald Cunliffe
Gerald Cunliffe Stones was born at 23 South Brink, Wisbech St Peter, Cambridgeshire on 31 July 1879, but baptised at Cromford, Derby on 25 January 1893, son of Thomas Stones (1840-8 May 1896), manager of a timber merchants, and his wife Maria Yelverton Dawbarn (1844-8 November 1900), eldest daughter of William Dawbarn of Elmswood Hall, Aigburth, who married at Myrtle Chapel, Liverpool on 8 January 1874. In 1891, Gerald was an 11-year-old, and living at Duffield Road, St Alkmund, Derby with his parents, 51-year-old Thomas, now retired, and 46-year-old Maria, with siblings Lillian Mary 14, Francis Dawbarn 13, Robert Yelverton 9, all born at Wisbech, and Hilda Cunliffe 6, born at Liverpool. Gerald was educated at Derby grammar school and studied at Derby Municipal Technical College passing his City and Guilds of London Institute examination in 1902 in Painting from Still Life. In 1901, a 21-year-old art student, living at Ashfield, Matlock Bath, Bakewell, Derbyshire with his siblings but by 1911, a 31-year-old 'picture artist', boarding at Barking Road, Needham Market, Suffolk, the home of 53-year-old spinster Mary Ann Lawson, who was born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He exhibited at the Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1903 from Matlock Bath, Derbyshire and was a member of the Ipswich Art Club 1910-1913, exhibiting from The Grove, Needham Market in 1910, 'Mist on the Floods', 'A Summer Haze', 'Autumn', 'Le Pont Neuf, Paris' and 'Homewards', all oil on canvas, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. On 6 February 1913, he sailed on the 'Persic' from Liverpool, emigrating to Melbourne, Australia where he was a fruit farmer at Tresco, Victoria. On 21 May 1915, he enlisted in the 5th Infantry Battalion at Swan Hill and, after training at Seymour, commissioned in January 1916 and transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and trained as an observer before being posted to No 67 (Australian) Squadron. As a lieutenant, he was killed at Belah in Egypt when his plane was brought down by anti-aircraft fire near Gaza on 30 May 1917, he was buried in Egypt's Kantara War Memorial Cemetery.
Royal Academy Exhibits
from Needham Market, Suffolk
1910 571 Le Pont Neuf, Paris