UNITY SPENCER (1930-2017)
“Children of geniuses tend to have a rather hard time of it.” – Unity Spencer
 
Unity, the younger daughter of British artist Stanley Spencer and his first wife Hilda Carline, was born in Hampstead, London, in 1930, five years after her older sister Shirin. Unity was at Badminton from 1941 to 1948. Badminton was evacuated to Lynmouth on the north Devon coast, from the autumn of 1940 when the German bombing of Bristol made remaining in Westbury-on-Trym, uncomfortably close to both the city centre docks and the aeroplane factories at Filton, too great a risk, until just before the war ended in spring 1945.

Unity, like many artists associated with Badminton, then studied at the Slade after two years at Wimbledon Art School and began to paint in earnest. She supported herself as an art teacher, first at The Downs in Herefordshire, then at Bedgebury Park school in Kent (1956-61).
 
Like any Badmintonian who had felt the influence of Miss Baker, Unity had a keen sense of social justice and an internationalist outlook, and in 1960 she joined the International Voluntary Service and spent two summers working in Germany, digging trenches with pickaxes and helping to build homes for Hungarian refugees. 
 
Unity enjoyed undoubted success as an artist in her own right: she had three solo shows of her paintings in London, and contributed to many mixed exhibitions, including the Royal Academy shows. She had a one-person show in Highgate in 1993, and another at the Boundary Gallery in St John’s Wood in 2001. In 2015, Unity published her autobiography: Lucky to Be an Artist, published by Unicorn Press, and at the age of 85 prepared for the solo exhibition which was to cemente her reputation, at the Fine Art Society.
 
During the recent ‘Year of Stanley Spencer’ (16 April 2016 - 19 May 2017, commemorating Spencer’s 125^th birthday), Badminton organised events to display its collection of Spencer family works: several original pencil drawings by Stanley Spencer, an original oil by his brother Gilbert (whose daughter also attended Badminton) and also two smaller original oils by Unity which were gifted to the School. 
 
An interview with Shirin Spencer was published in the Radio Times (Feb 2018) to coincide with the screening of the BBC4 documentary Arena: Stanley and His Daughters. Shirin confirmed that Unity struggled with depression throughout her life and the relationship between the two sisters, who were separated by divorce when Shirin was sent away to live with an aunt while Unity remained with her severely depressed mother, was often troubled.
 
Fortunately, the two were brought back together by Unity and Lambert’s son, John Spencer. The last of Stanley Spencer’s line, he presides over the artistic legacy of his family. Thanks to John, Stanley Spencer’s daughters lived together again for just over a year until Unity’s death in October 2017. We extend our warmest sympathies to John and to Shirin.
 
Rebecca Robertson
Hon Sec OBA
March 2018