CLOUGH, Robert
Robert Clough was born at 17 Ivegate, Bradford, Yorkshire in 1847, second son of Benjamin Clough, a master tinner employing seven people, and his wife Jane née Hey, who married at Bradford Parish Church on 19 June 1844. In 1861 they were living at 30 Ivegate, Bradford, Yorkshire but his father died on 27 March 1866 and in 1871, Robert was a 24-year-old ‘artist, landscape & portrait’ living at 58 Jermyn Street, Bradford with his 48-year-old widowed mother Jane, and his sister, 21-year-old Mary Elizabeth. Robert married at Keighley, Yorkshire in 1873, Mary Susannah Pickles (1848-1929) and in 1881 was the first headmaster of the Government School of Science & Art at London Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk. A member of Ipswich Fine Art Club 1884-1886, and exhibited a total of twenty-one works from 7 Clapham Road, Lowestoft, with most of the subjects being local landscapes, but exhibited in 1883 no less than twelve paintings, an oil 'North Bay, Scarboro' and eleven watercolours including 'On the Waveney', 'Entrance to Lowestoft Harbour', 'Ulverstone Sands, Storm coming on', 'The Tug 'Imperial' bringing in the Smack 'Lily' and 'On the Beach, Morecambe'. In 1884 he exhibited amongst others an oil ‘Christmas Day, Covehithe’ and in 1885 a watercolour ‘The Ferry, Reedham’. By 1888, he had been succeeded at the Lowestoft School Art by Edward Fraser and in 1891 Robert was a 41-year-old ‘artist landscape, figure and art master’ living at 25 Clarendon Road, St Helier, Jersey with his 40-year-old wife Mary and children, Monica Jane 17 and Florence Emma 15, both born at Sailtaire, Yorkshire. By 1901, they had returned to England and Robert was a 54-year-old artist & art master living at Hamilton Villas, 1 Alexandra Road, Margate, Kent with his wife and daughters Monica, an art teacher and Florence, an artist & art teacher, they also had a boarder, 18-year-old Joseph Gott, an art student. Robert Clough, an ‘unemployed art master’ and his wife were still living at Margate in 1911 and he died at 1 Hamilton Villas, Alexandra Road, Margate, Kent on 22 November 1914, aged 67.