Self portrait
Wilfrid Burnet Tapp (1880 -1976), artist and teacher, was born and lived at Thornton near Bradford. His father, Caleb, was the headmaster of the local school and a Methodist preacher. His mother, Frances, encouraged Wilfrid’s early drawing ability, and he would often go on solitary walks onto the nearby Ogden Moors with his sketchbook. He wrote:
I taught myself to paint in water-colour on the moors and spent many happy hours trying to catch the varying moods of the great skies, with their rolling clouds … I found great delight in the changing colours of the moors itself: the freh green of the Springtime, followed by the blaze of purple in the summer, then the wonderful yellows and browns of the bracken in Autumn. I can’t express in words what this meant for me.
However, an art education and career as a freelance artist was economically risky at that time (and now) so after his elementary education, he continued his general education at Bradford Technical College and, aged 15, became a pupil-teacher at a local school after winning a West Riding County Minor Scholarship. This led onto a full-time teacher training college course in Edinburgh.
He taught in Bristol before returning to Bradford to teach, first as a supply teacher, then as Assistant Master at the Keelham School, near his family home in Thornton, where he taught for 16 years. He was headteacher at the Sandy Lane Elementary School for 18 years, then headteacher at Frizinghall Modern and Primary School, where he stayed for a further 19 years until his retirement.
In his own time, he painted in oils and watercolour, mainly of local landscapes, although he was also a proficient figure and portrait sketcher and painter. He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in 1927 and exhibited his work at RWA shows, Spring exhibitions at Cartwright Hall, Bradford, and at other local art shows. Bradford Museums & Galleries hold one of his oil paintings (shown below). He was a chairman and honorary life member of Bradford Art Club.
‘Dales Landscape’. Image: BBC ‘Your Paintings’/Bradford Museums & Galleries
After retiring he lived at Kettlewell in Wharfedale, but spent the last years of his life in the Bingley area. After his death, his daughter, published recordings Wilfrid had made about his childhood experiences in Thornton: ‘When I wor a Lad: Thornton in the 1880s & 90s’ (1992). Published by Bradford libraries.
Farm buildings at Denholme. Oil painting in a private collection. Image: with permission of owner.