Moira, Gerald Edward

Gerald Moira (1867–1959) was an English painter who became best known for his murals. He was born in London, the son of a former Portuguese diplomat who became a miniature painter and naturalized British citizen in 1875. In 1887 Moira entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the Armitage prize for figure composition. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1891 and came to prominence as a mural painter with a commission from J. Lyons and Co. for the Trocadero restaurant in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. His other early commissions included the ceilings of the vestry and library of the Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool, the board-room of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, and paintings and stained glass for the Central Criminal Court in London. He also painted in oil, tempera, and watercolour.

He was professor of mural and decorative painting at the Royal College of Art in London from 1900-22 and principal of the Edinburgh College of Art from 1923 until he retired in 1932. He served also as president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, vice-president of the Royal Watercolour Society, a member of the Royal West of England Academy, and a founder member of the National Portrait Society.

Source: Gerald Edward Moira by Alan Windsor, 2004 – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography