Tom Fairs

Tom Fairs was born in London in 1925 and left school at 16 to work for the post office. He later enrolled in evening classes at the Hornsey School of Art and in 1948 was accepted full time. In 1950 he went on to the Royal College of Art. He specialised in stained-glass design, and subsequently received several public commissions, including working with Geoffrey Clarke on the nave windows on the new Coventry Cathedral.

From 1954 to 1987 he taught fine art, theatre design and stained-glass at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (later Central School of Art and Design), becoming a senior lecturer in theatre design in 1967. He painted almost every day until his final illness, accumulating a wealth of remarkable paintings, most of which have still to be seen by the public.