Painter. Born Roger Hildesheim in Northwood, in Middlesex, the son of a doctor who, in 1916, anglicised the surname. Educated at Bishop’s Stortford College, the Slade School of Art, and at the Academie Raison in Paris, he had his first one-man exhibition in 1936, at the Bloomsbury Gallery in London. During the War, he served in the Commandos and, in 1942, took part in the raid on Dieppe, where he was taken prisoner of war. From 1950, his work became more abstract and was, largely, restricted to the primary colours, although, in 1961, he began to paint female nudes. He won the first prize at the John Moores Exhibition in Liverpool in 1963 and, the following year, represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. In 1965, he married for the second time and, with his new family, moved to Cornwall, although he had spent much time in that county for a decade before then. In 1968, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. For the last two years of his life, largely because of his alcoholism, he was confined to bed and was able to paint only in gouache. His second wife, Rose Hilton (b. 1931) is also a well-known painter. (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)