Betty Rea

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Elizabeth Marion Rea (1904-1965) was an English sculptor and educationalist.

Betty Rea was born in London in 1904. Her father was Dr. Arthur Bevan and her mother's maiden name was Barnardo; Dr.Thomas John Barnardo was her great-uncle.

She was educated at Downe House School (in Kent at that time) and began to study painting at the Regent Street Polytechnic in 1922, almost at once changing to sculpture and transferring her studies to the Royal College of Art in 1924. Her teacher there was Ernest Cole. Henry Moore was a student teacher at the RCA at that time, and became a friend.^[1]

In 1926 she married James Rea, whose father became Baron Rea, a Liberal peer, their two sons, Nicholas and Julian, were born in 1928 and 1931. The couple divorced in 1942, he died in 1954.

During the 1930s, partly influenced by her friendship with Professor John Desmond Bernal^[2], Betty Rea was greatly involved in anti-fascist, leftwing politics. From 1934 to 1936 she was secretary of the Artists' International Association, founded in 1933, this organization sought to oppose imperialism, fascism and colonialism through art.

For most of the war, Betty Rea taught painting and modelling in evacuated children's homes in Huntingdon and the surrounding country. She set up home with her colleague, Nan Youngman, first in a caravan in the grouds of Hinchingbrooke House then in Godmanchester and in 1946 at 'Papermills' in Cambridge. The children's paintings from this time were included in several British Council exhibitions sent abroad and some are illustrated in Herbert Read's "Education Through Art".

From 1949 she taught sculpture at Homerton College, continuing this part-time until 1964, she also worked for some years as craft examiner for the Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate.

Betty Rea died in 1965.

Her last work, 'Swimmers', completed posthumously by John W Mills, stands in the grounds of Cambridge Parkside swimming pool.

Betty Rea's sculpture has been the subject of recent research published by the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds in 2003.^[3]