John Egerton Christmas Piper was born December 1903 in Epsom, Surrey. He was educated at Epsom College and went on to be trained at Richmond School of Art and the Royal college of Art in Kensington.
His early works were more abstract, but his style became more naturalistic in the late 1930s. Piper was an official war artist in World War II and also undertook work for the 'Recording Britain' project, recording sites that were at risk of damage from bombing or neglect.
As well as painting, Piper is renowned for his stained glass work which can be seen at Coventry Cathedral, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and churches in Lichfield, Wolverhampton and Bristol amongst others. His tapestries hang in Chichester, Hereford and Llandaff (Cardiff) cathedrals.
Piper also designed fabrics for Sandersons, ceramics and dust jackets for books . He collaborated in the Shell Guide series of guidebooks.
Piper was commissioned in 1980 to paint three paintings of buildings, which originally hung on the South wall of The Great Hall, between the glass doors. They were later moved to the boardroom.
The paintings portray Buckden Palace and St Mary's church in Cambridgeshire, Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire and Saint David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire. The latter illustrating the fact that the Institute covers Wales as well as England.
The Chair of the Great Hall art works commissioning committee, Kenneth Manterfield, reportedly picked Buckden as a subject simply because they were buildings he walked past frequently and liked, perhaps during his time as a student at Queens' College, Cambridge University. Manterfield was born in Sheffield, around 16 miles from Conisbrough Castle. We may speculate that he also holidayed in Pembrokeshire!
