Walter John Pearce

• Born: 24 September 1856
• Died: on 7 October I942

Walter John Pearce was born on 24 September I856 at 3 Milton Place in Brighton, the son of John and Elizabeth Pearce who were married in Brighton on l4 February I849. Both parents died young leaving Walter an orphan at ten years of age. He was placed first in Warren Farm Industrial School at Roehampton but was then transferred to The New Orphan House at Ashley Down in Bristol (also known as The Muller Homes). Children usually stayed until they were around fourteen when they would be found an apprenticeship and sent out to make their own way.

Walter left the Muller Homes on 5 May I871 when he was apprenticed to a painter and decorator, George Howe of Holyrood House, Holyrood Street, Chard, Somerset at and of 10 High Street. Forest Hill in London. By 1881 at the age of twenty-four he is lodging in Clyde Terrace in Lewisham and is described as a house decorator. In I883 he is working for the firm of Cox and Buckley, one of about 300 employees. The firm originally trading as Cox and Son was founded as a clerical outfitter by Thomas Cox in I838 and over the following years became one of the leading church furnishing companies. It is said that the firm bought much of the stock of furniture and designs of EW Pugin together with designs from the Society of Decorative Art and they commissioned work from many of the leading designers of the day. By 1862 they had established a dedicated stained glass works in Covent Garden where, presumably, Walter Pearce learnt his trade.

Walter married Annie Hood in I883 and around I890 they moved to Manchester where they settled at 68 Lansdowne Road in Didsbury with their two daughters. Eveline. who was adopted, and Annie Elizabeth. A son, Raymond Maplesden Pearce was born in I895.

In Manchester, Walter joined the firm of W.G. Sutherland and Company, painters and decorators. Sutherland lived over his shop at 357 Stretford Road and at some point. had a warehouse at 15 Little Peter Street with shops at 76 Mosley Street, 11 St Ann Street, and 36A South King Street.

By the mid-1890s he was in business on his own account at 12-14 Albert Street, removing to 41 Garside Street in 1899. Initially, Pearce continued in the business of painting and decorating, but by 1899 is described as a Stained Glass Artist.

In 1898 Walter was teaching painting and decorating at the Manchester Municipal School of Technology, and in that year he published “Painting and Decorating” which became the standard textbook, running to seven editions. Pearce was also a Council member of the Northern Art Workers Guild of which he was Master in 1903. He participated in the Guild’s first exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery in 1898. He was also a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters.

Pearce seems to have been the designer for much of his own firm's output mostly in a loose Art Nouveau style. He also worked in a medium he patented in I897 which he called ‘Vitemure,' a combination of traditional mosaic and of stained glass without the leading. The glass was cemented to the wall with pieces laid out as in a stained-glass window in various shapes and sizes, often with the background using the traditional tesserae. His patent refers mainly to a method of applying gold leaf to the back of the glass pieces. This type of work is best seen in St Ignatius RC Church, Stamford Hill in London, where he installed a full scheme of panels. Locally he made two panels in ‘Vitremure’ for St Paul’s Church Kersal Moor and a further two for St James, Haslingden. He also completed panels for the War Memorial on the walls of the baptistery at St Peter's in Hale.

Pearce was still advertising his wares as late as I939 in the Manchester Evening News when his was in his 80s. He was working in the late l930s from his Whitefield Studios in Alderley Road, Wilmslow whilst living first in Keep Close and then at l6 Alderley Road, both in Wilmslow,

Walter Pearce died on 7 October I942 at the age of 86 years in Holmcroft, part of Arclid Hospital near Congleton

[Brian Hartley]

Reference: Greater Manchester Churches Preservation Society Newsletter No 31, Spring 2018