Francis Spear

Francis Howard Spear (22 December 1902 in South Norwood, London – 7 November 1979) was an English stained glass artist and lithographer.

In 1922, while still a student, he had become pupil-assistant to the leading English practitioner of stained glass, Martin Travers, and continued to assist him until the Second World War.

Many early and subsequent works were carried out with the assistance of the firm of Lowndes & Drury in Fulham, and Spear rented a studio there from 1935 until 1941 at which point war service took over his time.

During the war, Spear served as a firefighter in Shepherd's Bush for three years but also assisted in the removal, for safe keeping, of the stained glass windows from Canterbury Cathedral.

[2] After the War, he set up his own studio in Chelsea in 1946, then moved to Islington, and finally to Reigate in 1951 where he made his base for the rest of his life.