TENNANT, Norman

Norman Tennant, etcher and illustrator, was born in Ilkley in 1896.   He attended Ilkley Grammar School, then studied at Bradford College of Art in 1912.  In 1913 he joined the Territorial Army (under the legal age) and was on active service during the 1914-18 war. He saw action as a signaller on the Western Front in the 11th Howitzer Battery of the 49th West Riding Territorial Division.

He was awarded the DCM in 1915 for wounds received whilst continually repairing telephone wires under heavy shell fire. He was again wounded in the face in May 1918, removing him from active duty for the remainder of the war. He kept diaries and sketchbooks during his war service and later wrote and illustrated the book, A Saturday Night Soldier’s War (see below, and bibliography).

After his discharge from the army in 1919 he resumed his studies at Bradford College and continued on to the Royal College of Art (RCA), gaining his RCA Diploma in 1921. During his time at the RCA he became a close friend of the artist/engraver, Robert Austin, and Norman later wrote about their art school experiences and friendship in his book, ‘A Record of Friendship’ (see bibliography below).

Drypoint sketch of Norman Tennant by his friend, Robert Austin. From the book, ‘A Record of Friendship’; see bibliography below

Both men had served in the Artillery during WW1 and were ‘kindred spirits’, both in personality and artistic interests. In the summer of 1921, before they went their separate career ways, they toured the Flanders battlefields and Flemish towns by bicycle, sketching as they went.

Flemish church, attributed to Norman Tennant. Image; The Salesroom. Com

Norman stayed on at the RCA after gaining his Diploma to study for a teaching qualification. From 1922 onward, Norman taught at a number of art colleges and became Head of the Arts & Crafts Department at East Ham Technical College, London. He exhibited a watercolour Yorkshire landscape painting at Cartwright Hall in the Jubilee Exhibition 1954 (see image below), and exhibited other work (see below) at the Royal Academy and at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

‘Coniston, Wharfedale’ Image: Bonhams

‘Yorkshire Farmyard’, linocut engraving of a farm at Appletreewick, exhibited at a Royal Academy show, and later reproduced in the ‘Dalesman’.. Image: Dalesman.

He lived during his final retirement years at Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Bibliography