RAYNE, Geoffrey Middleton Randall

1881 - 1973

Geoffrey Middleton Randall Rayne was born at Ealing, Middlesex on 20 August 1881, youngest son of Middleton Rayne (1831-9 October 1882), M.Inst.C.E., Engineer in Chief of the Indus State Railway, and his wife Ann Maria Randall (1836-16 October 1920), eldest daughter of Chadd Ragsdale Randall of Hackney and of Tokenhouse Yard, London, who married at South Hackney Church, London on 12 December 1868. Middleton Rayne's diaries are in the India Office Records at the British Library. On 15 January 1896, Geoffrey joined the Royal Navy, having spent time aboard the training ship 'Britannia' and from 15 September 1897 served as a midshipman on HMS Revenge. On 1 July 1903 promoted lieutenant to the 'Alert', in June 1911 lieutenant-commander and in June 1916, after the Battle of Jutland, a full commander. He served at the naval airship station at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he commanded the balloon ship HMS Hector and again during the Dardanelles campaign. He was appointed to HMS Hercules and in 1917 to HMS Resolution, both attached to the Grand Fleet and retired from the Navy in 1927. On the outbreak of the Second World War recalled to the Service and, with the rank of Consular Captain, served as Senior British Naval Officer in Curacao in the Caribbean 1942-1943 for which he was awarded the Order of the Orange Nassau. He ended the War as Senior Officer Commanding HMS Lucifer (Avonmouth) 1944, reverting to the Retired List in October 1945. He married at Christ Church, Woburn Square, London on 12 November 1909, Claudine Helen Florence Kempson (14 September 1878-4 January 1961), youngest daughter of George William Douglas Kempson of 14th Hussars, and they had two daughters and a son. He travelled abroad several times including Canada in 1903, and together with his wife, to Gibraltar in 1923 and Curacao in 1941, when living in Dedham, Essex, and in 1950 to Jamaica, when his address is given as West Emsworth, Hampshire. In 1932 he exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club from Old Chapel House, East Bergholt, Suffolk, two watercolours 'Moreton Heath, Dorset' and 'Sweet Peas' and he also exhibited in Curacao in 1943 and at the Chichester Art Society, which he helped found in 1937 and was its chairman for some seven years 1949-1956. His paintings were mostly landscapes of his travels in Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Venice, Gibraltar, and the Caribbean. Geoffrey Middleton Randall Rayne died at Little Orchard, Prinsted, Emsworth, Hampshire on 16 July 1973.

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Works by This Artist