Lamont, John C

Person

Lamont, John C

John Charles Lamont was born in Chryston, Lanarkshire on the 2nd of September 1894. He was the only child of Annabella Henry Lamont (nee Turnbull) and John Lamont, a doctor. A full time student of Drawing and Painting at The Glasgow School of Art between 1912 and 1914, he studied under Newberry and obtained a travelling scholarship though never went travelling due to being called up to war service as Acting Corporal with the Royal Tank Corps. Although earning a British War Medal and Victory Medal, he also received a serious injury that caused him to suffer ill health for the rest of his live, hindering his artistic practice and restricting the amount of work he could produce.

In spite of this, he moved to Kirkcudbright in the 1920s following the death of his father and a short period of employment in Ireland. There he joined a thriving artists' colony where he was reunited with fellow Glasgow School of Art classmate James Cowie (not included on the Roll of Honour as he declared himself a conscientious objector, refusing military service but accepting call-up to Non-Combatant corps) and befriended Robert Sivell (war-time engineer, fitting out trawlers and drifters for mine sweeping and similar operations), becoming affiliated with Archibald McGalshan, another well-known Glasgow School of Art graduate who had previously shared a studio with Sivell in Glasgow.

Lamont married the daughter of a Kirkcudbright cabinet maker and shipbuilder, Elspeth Sayers, whose sister Isobel became the wife of Robert Sivell. Lamont and Sivell were very close (Lamont even built himself and his new wife a house 'Millfield, The Stell' near to Sivell's home 'The Hollow') and a portrait by Sivell, Lamont by Lamplight, can still be seen on display in Gracefield Arts Centre as part of the Dumfries and Galloway collection. Lamont's paintings, typically landscapes and figures, were popular and exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts prior to his death in 1948. His death certificate is signed by his brother in law, Robert Sivell.

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Sources: the Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture by Peter J M McEwan; the Dictionary of Scottish Architects: http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk; Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, Tales of the Kirkcudbright Artists by Haig Gordon.

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