Thomas Davidson

Thomas Davidson RA (17 January 1842 – November 1919) was an English painter specialising in historical naval scenes. Life Davidson was born on 17 January 1842 in St George Hanover Square, London, England. He lost his hearing at age four, whereupon he was sent as a private pupil to the Old Kent Road Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and subsequently attended a "hearing" school in Clapham. Showing a flair for art, Davidson was admitted to the National Art Training School, Marlborough House (later the Royal College of Art); he went on to study under Francis Stephen Cary (1808-1880), James Mathews Leigh (1808-1860), and Alexander Johnston (1815-1891), before spending ten years at the Royal Academy, where he won the academy's silver medals. In 1871, Davidson married artist Charlotte Douglas McHeath (1851-1930) in Marylebone; records show that in 1881 they were living with their six children at 82 Park Road, Hampstead, and in 1901 at 101 Greencroft Gardens, Hampstead. Davidson retired in 1908 to Mill Field, Walberswick, Suffolk, where he died aged 77 in November 1919.