Rex (1905-1944) and Laurence Whistler (1912-2000)

A plaque to the Whistler brothers was unveiled by Laurence Whistler’s eldest daughter, Robin Ravilious, on 19 August 2021 at the Walton Canonry, 69 The Close.  Rex was an outstanding artist and designer, who lived in the Walton Canonry for a number of years. Despite his age, he was determined to serve in the war, and managed to join the Welsh Guards in 1940. He was killed in Normandy four years later by a mortar bomb. His younger brother Laurence, a nationally celebrated glass engraver, was married in Salisbury Cathedral with Rex acting as his best man. One of Laurence’s glass engravings (a three-sided prism revolving on a small turntable so that the prism’s internal reflections completed the image) is housed in the Cathedral’s Morning Chapel as a memorial to Rex. In 2013, Salisbury Museum acquired an extensive archive, compiled by Laurence  Whistler, of drawings, book illustrations, stage and mural designs and other material by Rex