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Newsletter Article Obituary Arthur Chandler 1930-2008 Arthur Chandler died after a prolonged illness in January. If any person deserves the label 'multi-tasker' it was Arthur. Whilst still a six-former at Alleyn's he founded the Know London Society and published two small histories of the area; one of Christ's Chapel and the other of the village. After leaving Alleyn's he entered teaching and whilst at Oakfield School he taught both Michael Crawford and Norma Major; the latter being the more forgiving of the two. It was however in a new career in adult education which he embarked upon in the 1970s that he discovered where his true talents really lay. He became Head of Centre at the Dulwich Adult Education office based in the infants' school in the village. His enthusiasm and management saw classes spring up in outlying sites around the village and its student role rise by leaps and bounds. It was one of the most successful adult education centres in London. When local council cut-backs forced the closure of most adult education centres he embarked on another new career in staging largely academic exhibitions. At the same time he was appointed archivist to the University of Surrey. It was through his efforts that the archive left to the University, by E. S. Shepard, the illustrator of the Winnie the Pooh books became widely known. Key to this was Chandler's success in persuading a doubtful Dulwich Picture Gallery of the potential public interest in the illustrations. The Gallery finally agreed and what had initially been dismissed as an exhibition of children's' art became one of the Gallery's exhibition success stories. After the Dulwich exhibition the E S Shepard archive went on show in Japan, Australia and Canada and Chandler wrote the accompanying catalogue and lectured widely on the Shepard and his work. In recognition of his service as archivist at Surrey he was awarded the honorary degree of Master of the University. Arthur Chandler was invariably nervous when starting to lecture and this invariably resulted in a stern and perhaps pompous expression. After a few minutes however, when he got in his stride, this expression disappeared, to be replaced by the animated face of a born raconteur. In addition Arthur Chandler found time for numerous voluntary activities. He was chairman first of the Camberwell Arts Council and later the Southwark Arts Council. In this role, it was he who first introduced Sam Wanamaker to Bankside where Wanamaker's Globe Theatre would eventually become a reality. Among the pageants he directed was one celebrating the unification of three London boroughs to create the present borough of Southwark. He directed and wrote the script for the 1967 Dulwich pageant celebrating its thousand years of history. He arranged art festivals, including one at St Barnabas and enjoyed singing Gilbert & Sullivan operettas at the Harvest Supper. To his delight he was appointed archivist at Alleyn's, writing two histories of the school and a presenting a final pageant to mark the 375th anniversary of the Foundation. |
