Painter. Born in Spitalfields, London, Gertler was a pacifist and refused to support Britain’s involvement in the First World War. After the Battle of the Somme Gertler painted Merry-Go-round (1916). Considered by many art critics as the most important British painting of the First World War, Merry-go-round, shows a group of military and civilian figures caught on the vicious circle of the roundabout. His early life and his relationship with Dora Carrington were the inspiration for Gilbert Cannan’s novel Mendel. The character Loerke from D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love and Gombauld from Aldous Huxley’s Crome Yellow were based on him. He committed suicide. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)