Biography

William Skeoch Cumming was a draughtsman, painter and designer of tapestries. After formative sketching sessions with his father, Cumming was apprenticed at the Theatre Royal and later studied at the Trustees’ Academy. In 1899, when the Boer War broke out, he joined the 19th Company of Yeomanry, with whom he sailed to South Africa. He returned safely from the war, and brought back with him many sketches, to be turned into watercolours. He was most comfortable with this medium, although he was hardly ever satisfied with his own work. From 1912 until his death he designed four large-scale tapestries and coordinated their production. A ‘jovial’ person, he liked his freedom and his music. He lived with his elder sister and her family and did not marry until shortly before his death.