DennisCRandall

some of these pictures have a penny or ruler to give you an idea of their size..







these are only a few of the many many many we have, and of course many others have moved on..









and finally..

exactly as said at my step-dads service...


DENNIS C RANDALL
1916 - 1997

It would be impossible for me today to cover all that Dennis was as a person and all that he achieved as a master craftsman and a highly gifted painer and artist.

Over the last few days I have heard a number of tributes paid to Dennis and this one echoes them all.

¨He was a skilful craftsman, a wonderful artist and a lovely man to the bargain.¨

This gathering here today is but further testimony to the esteem and affection in which he is held.

In coming to give thanks to God for Dennis today we celebrate also the gifts and achievements that have enriched so many lives.

Dennis was born on 11th June 1916 and has been a local man all of his life.

In his childhood days he lived with his older brother Cliff and younger sister Linda at Gossoms End in Berkhamsted. He attened school at Park View Road and his own earliest recollections of painting and drawing were of when he was only three or four years old.

At school his considerable artistic gifts were soon recognised and he wond 1st prize in art, every year, until he left school at the age of fourteen years.

After Dennis left school he became apprenticed to Durrants the cabinet maker until the second world war.

At the age of twenty three Dennis then joined the Royal Artillery and served for six years as a batman to a high ranking officer.

In July of 1943 he married Rene MaClaren, an Australian born nurse. When the war was over he joined a small antique restoration business.

After seven years of marriage their son Roy was born but sadly when Roy was only sixteen years old Rene died of a heart condition.

During his lifetime Dennis suffered osteo-arthritis and it was this condition that forced him to leave the antique restoration company. He was fortunate, however, in being one of the first patients to receive revolutionary treatment and the operation he received was 95% successful, although he was registered as a disabled person.

It is to his great credit that in responding to the request to donate his body to medical research, the long term effects of that operation can now be discovered.

Dennis was to find married happiness again when he married Muriel in December 1967. It was then his pleasure to welcome also Amercian born Muriel´s daughter, Marioan, as his own adopted child.

Encouraged by Muriel and because of the success of his operation, Dennis was able to continue to develop his artistic skills and gifts.

At one time he worked foa silk screening companuy, but the time he most valued was when he assisted and trained with John Essex, the well known picture liner and restorer. It was during his time working with John Essex that Dennis became familiar with the most modern and skilled mithods of picture restoration.

He learrned hot table and thermo blanket methods which previously had only been used by the National Gallery in London and the Hague. He gained experience in the transfter of paint from wood panels onto canvas, and from canvas to canvas, and worked for leading auctioneeers, art galleries and institutes. As Dennis himself wrote....

¨this work was highly specialised and extremely valuable knowledge which enabled me to become fully trained in this field. Dealing with so many valuable paintings has given me insight for my own work and has greatly influenced my treatment of colour and light.

Ït was for all this that Dennis was forever thankful. As I have heard it said recently, ¨Dennis thought the world of John Essex

Äfter trianing and working with John Essex, DEnnis became self employed in the resotring of antiques and oil paintings. As a master craftsman his work became much sought after.

He worked from his garden workshop at his home, Collier Cottage off New Road sharing his skill and knowledge with the three young men that he trained. In later years, his two grandsons, Barry and Tony, enjoyed meeting some well known clients.

At one time he restored a large Irish yew table for the famous author Graham Greene. He also restored a table for the actor Roger Moore, known to us as The Saint or James Bond´s 007. But Dennis above all was a man with his life and interests deeply rooted in the local community. He came from a family that for generations had lived in Northchurch. He was known locally as a person who always had time for others, who was always ready to help.

Among other tributes that I have heard over these last few day are these,

¨He told wonderful stories about people¨

¨He made miniature furniture which was exquisite¨

¨He once restored a table for me, his matching of wood colour was meticulous.¨

¨He was generous and very, very clever.¨

Among the many restoration projects that Dennis became involved in both locally and further afield was the beautiful restoration of the once almost derelict church at Puttenham. One can also see evidence of this work here at St. Mary´s. Some years ago he restored the painting of the virgin mother and child which hangs in the Lady Chapel. He also restored the great chest and one can see the flower pedestal that he made in memory of May Egglesfield and Winnie Sibley, sisters of Margaret Egglesfield who is a long standing member of this church.

The work of Dennis, master craftsman and antique and picture restorer lives on today in all the fine objects that he restored and created for people to enjoy.

But his is only part of his life time´s achievment.

For Dennis was a prolific painter and artist in his own right. He drew his inspiration from Constable and Turner and in his work one can see a celebration of nature and a love of the English countryside.

As he wrote of his work,

¨My work is varied. I also paint in the style of French Impressionists. I pain floral displays, Italian, Dutch and Flemish scenes, in fact anthing that relates to the past namely 18th and 19th centures.¨

Dennis also painted fine seascapes. He liked to pain scenes from childhood memories. He sketched on sight both locally and abroad. When he realised that the English elm tresss were dying he included them in his pictures, before, as he put it, ¨the disease finished them off.¨

Today his paintings are dispersed world wide as well as all over England.

in his kindness some of his paintings have been gifted to local charities. I know that this St. Mary´s school has benefited from his generosity.

And so through his paintings the memory of Dennis lives on in all that he shared of himself and in his vision of the world and people around him.

çwhen he wrote once about a new project he was undertaking, he said,

¨I am embarking on a new venture.¨

Today as we celebrate his life and give thanks for the colourufl and self giving person he was, we can be sure that in his new spiritual life in the peace of God, Dennis is indeed embarking on a new venture.

For Dennis was known to be a person of strong belief in God. He expressed his faith in both a practicl and visionary way.. With the reading from St John´s gospel earlier in this thanksgiving service, we heard these words that Jesus spoke,
¨Do not let your hearts be troubled,
Trust in God still, and trust in me.
There are many rooms in my Father´s house,
if there were not, I should have told you.
I am going now to prepare a plce for you,
and after I have gone and prepared you a place,
I shall return to take you there with me,
so that where I am you may be too.¨

In faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ let us be glad in the hope that Dennis lives life anew in the heavenly and eternal dwelling place of God.

To make a fitting conclusion to this tribute to the life of Dennis, and at Meriels´s request, I will rad now this poem by Rudyard Kipling.......

When earth´s last picture is painted.......