User:Dmunge/George Button

New article name goes here new article content ... George Button was born in Peckham, South East London in 1920s. At the age of 14/15 he passed exams to access an Art College. He came from a working class background, and his father told him that no son of his was going to study Art. His father gave him the option of either leaving the house, and going to Art College, or stay at home and get a proper job.

These options were of course unrealistic and George therefore took work as xxxxxxxxxxx. After moving to Sheerness, Kent, England, George was working for a double glazing company, and painting part time. Eventually GB worked for the Medway Harbour Board at Sheerness as a longshore man. During the Thatcher Government shipping activity at Sheerness was dramatically reduced and following redundancy, George Button finally had sufficient time to paint seriously.

Button researched and studied his subjects in great detail before he started to paint them. One such paintings was a seascape of the rescue of the sailors from sailing ship the "Indian Chief", which ran aground on the Long Sands in the Thames Estuary on the 11th of November 1881. This picture, illustrates his mastery of seascape painting, and the great skill of interpreting the written history from collected records of the event, and painting these on canvas.

The "Indian Chief" was a fully rigged ship of 1238 tons bound for Yokohama, Japan, carrying general cargo out of Middlesbrough. She ran aground on the Long Sands in the Northern Thames Estuary, in a North Westerly gale. Only 11 of the crew of 27, were eventually rescued.

Following abortive attempts by the life boats of both Aldborough (Sussex), and Harwich (Essex) the eventual rescue was carried out by the lifeboat the "Bradford" stationed in Ramsgate (Kent). The Bradfor, a lifeboat, financed by the Bradford Exchange, was stationed at Ramsgate to support the lucrative export trade from Yorkshire trade. The Bradford was manned by a crew of 10 under the kipper, Charlie Fish. Fish was acknowledged as being one of the finest sailors of his era.