(1920 - 2006)
Roland Vivian Pym was born in Cheveley, Suffolk but moved to Kent aged four, after his father inherited the family home. He studied theatre design at Slade School of Art (1928–32) and launched a career as a muralist after winning a competition to decorate a room at Lord’s. Other commissions included works for the Guinness family in England and Ireland. After serving in the War in North Africa, Pym returned to theatre design in London and Paris. In 1953 he decorated the Queen’s retiring room at Westminster Abbey, the screen for which is in the Government Art Collection (GAC 2463). Late in life in the 1990s, he illustrated books for The Folio Society, including ‘Love in a Cold Climate’ (1992). Pym died in Edenbridge, Kent in 2006.
