CHRISTOPHER
PRANCE 1927-2022
Christopher Prance died in October 2022, very shortly after his
95th birthday. He was the founder of this website and the following
account of his life was written by him in the late 1990s.
I was born on 16th October 1927 in the village of
Rudgwick, Sussex. My full name is Christopher Paul Macfarlane
Prance. Paul was to have been my first name but at the time
A.A.Milne's book 'Christopher Robin' was in fashion and this, I
daresay, influenced a last minute change before the baptism.
Macfarlane was my Mother's maiden name. My father was Bertram
Stanley Prance, a Bideford man, who had become a well known humorous
cartoonist by the time I was born. He contributed to countless
magazines and periodicals of which probably the best known was
'Punch'. In later life he was an accomplished painter and in 1998 I
had the privilege of arranging a large retrospective exhibition of
his work at the Burton Museum and Gallery, Bideford which has a
number of his works in its permanent collection.
At seven years old I was packed off to Fernden, a
boarding preparatory school at Haslemere, Surrey, not far from where
we lived, but in 1940 when it was expected that England would be
invaded I was evacuated to Canada along with many other boys and
girls. After the tragic sinking of a shipload of evacuees in the
Atlantic by enemy U-boats (only about four children survived) the
evacuation of children abroad was abruptly stopped and our ship, The
Monarch of Bermuda, already loaded up in Greenock, was probably one
of the last of these to sail. In Canada I went to Ashbury College in
Ottawa until 1943 when I sailed back to England. It was still very
risky in the Atlantic. The canadian adventure was wonderful and I
shall be forever grateful for the generosity and friendship shown me
by the canadians during my three and a half years there. Back in
England I went to Malvern College for a year before joining the
Royal Navy where I served for two and a half years in HMS Sheffield
(the one before the one that was sunk in the Falklands war).
Sheffield was the flagship of the small West Indies Fleet and we
visited most countries of the American continent north and south.
Back home I studied painting and sculpture at the
Slade School of Fine Art for four years but when it became obvious
that I wasn't going to make much of a living from painting I became
an art teacher, to begin with at Harrow School then at King's
College Wimbledon..From there to lecturing at a teacher's training
college in Twickenham where I also ran the pottery department. As
pottery seemed to be my natural talent I eventually left the college
in 1978 to start my own pottery and shop in Kingston-upon-Thames,
south London. This we ran successfully for about eight years. We
then spent two years converting a coach house beside our home in
Kingston before escaping the south and east altogether to rediscover
the countryside in North Devon where we have been living since 1993.
Our house is in a rural farming community and having a bit of land
of our own we keep some shetland ponies , a few sheep (not now!) and
chickens. The house was previously owned by a well known naturalist
photographer and a number of BBC. wild life films were made here and
in the immediate vicinity.
That thing at the back is the church
tower!
My wife Shirley and I have always had a keen
interest in spiritual matters and in the 1950's were intimately
connected with the Gurdjieff study groups under J.G.Bennet. From
1958 onwards we were also much involved with the movement known as
Subud and the last twelve years we have been active members of the
Anglican Church and am secretary of the local PCC. (now church
warden). As for hobbies I have so many that I never have a chance to
indulge in any of them properly!! As we get older, and with our many
responsibilities, we seem to have less time to pursue our own
interests, not more, which is a shame but this is mostly our own
fault! As for ambitions...I hope I live long enough to see our
grandchildren grow up and start their way in the world.
I consider myself to have been very fortunate in
life and dread to think how I would cope as a youngster in today's
fast moving and competitive world. One consolation is that our own
children seem to be coping very well indeed. Lastly, living here as
we do in North Devon, I feel a very strong affinity with the
forbears who worked and dwelt along this coastline. Life certainly
must have been hard for those who worked on the land also for those
who risked their lives on the sea. But there were rewards, for many
went on to make names for themselves and prosper. Many, of course,
left the Devon ports of Bideford and Plymouth for the New World and
Australia. There have been Prances in America for nearly four
hundred years. If you have a story to tell we would love to hear
from you so let us have it to share with other Prances around the
world.
PS. As we are both now
beyond elderly we have forsaken the idyllic pastures of Church
Cottage and the village life at Bradford for the convenience and
facilities of Bideford. A practical move, we shall miss the
friendly and rewarding village life at Bradford but Bideford is all
right, we now have the river and wonderful walks by the sea
near at hand. There is plenty to do and we shall not be bored.
A few examples of my pottery..........CP.CERAMICS
