Plaque to Wartime Acton Artist Officially Unveiled

Mayor of Ealing does the honours for commemoration of Margaret Dovaston

The plaque was originally put in place during the pandemic

May 29, 2025

Around 40 people turned up earlier this month to see the official unveiling of a plaque near the former residence of an Acton artists.

The occasion organised on 18 May jointly by the Acton History Group and the Mill Hill Park Residents' Association witnessed the Mayor of Ealing, Yvonne Johnson, unveiled the plaque, speaking briefly about the artist, and cutting the celebratory cakes, which were edible replicas of Margaret Dovaston's paintings. There was also prosecco on offer, and copies of the history of Mill Hill Park, "Celebrating the Light", obtainable from the Acton History Group.

Nigel Middlemiss, a 40-year-long member of the Acton History Group and a Founder member of the Mill Hill Park Residents’ Association, welcomed the Mayor and the others present.

He said, “The unveiling is one of the purposes of our get-together. The other, at least as important, is to say a very warm thank you to you personally, Madam Mayor. You it was, who as the key voice on the South Acton Ward Forum, backed the idea of this plaque and secured its funding. Some years ago, its unveiling was stopped by the COVID pandemic, but happily can go ahead today.

“And there are other reasons to say a heartfelt ‘thankyou’ to you. You have left your imprint, through the South Acton Ward Forum and other channels, in many many visible ways here – by the designation of Mill Hill Park as a conservation area, to protect what is historic and beautiful; by support for a full-colour history of this area, called “Celebrating the Light”, to remind residents of their heritage, and available here today; and in very many other ways.”

Edible replicas of the artist's paintings wiere served at the event

Mr Middlemass explained that Margaret Dovaston was one of the most accomplished and unusual women artists in Britain in the last century.

He said, “She lived from 1884 to 1954, and her early work was as a war artist / in the First World War. In those days it was an official appointment; artists were sent there to make a record. From the killing fields of Flanders she brought back the most striking and horrifying records of that awful, mechanised conflict, mostly monochrome drawings of pain and death, showing the inhumanity of war.

“Her later and most famous style came as a cheerful contrast to - and relief from - those terrors. It was with so-called genre paintings that she made her name, and fame, and livelihood. Unlike landscape art, or portraits, genre paintings are of domestic scenes, of people living a usually contented and homely life. She painted these in oils at a fantastic rate. As fast as she produced them, her agents sold them, many to Canada, the US and South Africa. They are still popular: a few years ago, her painting “An Afternoon Drink” (typical title) was selling for £33,000 pounds.

“Her favourite subjects / were people from the Regency and Georgian time, pre-1840, often men, wearing brightly coloured frock coats, in stylish baroque interiors with mullioned windows and ornamental fireplaces. There they are occupied with (mercifully) sociable things far from fighting wars: planning a journey, playing chess, telling anecdotes, and drinking toasts.

“At the same time Margaret had a twinkle in her eye about the way men, for her, make plans, relate anecdotes, look at maps, talk about journeys: they are actions done for their own leisurely sake rather than for any truly serious purpose. “

Although the house she lived in with its artist’s studio is no longer there, it is exactly 100 years since she moved into 51 Avenue Gardens which was designed by her architect brother John. She was already well embedded in Ealing life, after attending the Ealing School of Art, and setting up the Ealing Art Guild later the Ealing Arts Club.

She also lived through World War Two here, acting as the local Air Raid Warden, with an air-raid shelter in her garden.

The painting below shows the Mayor of Ealing meeting Mr Willoughby with the King and Queen to see the aftermath of a Luftwaffe raid on the borough.

“George VI and Queen Elizabeth Inspecting Air Raid Damage at Perivale, 27th September 1940” by Margaret Dovaston. Picture: Ealing Central Library