Woore, Edward
Edward Woore (1880-1960) was born in Derby and after school obtained a scholarship to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, in London. There he took up stained glass under the tuition of Christopher Whall, with whom he would later work, and where he would meet two other pupils and assistants, Karl Parsons and Arnold Robinson. Both Woore and Parsons would provide illustrations for Whall’s famous text Stained Glass Work in 1905.
Woore served in France during the First World War, where in 1917 he was wounded and lost the sight of one eye. Returning to England he renewed his connection with Christopher Whall, while also establishing his own studio and workshop, first in Hammersmith and then in Putney.
For a short period around the time of Whall’s death in 1924 he helped to manage the studio, and in 1933-34 assisted Karl Parsons with his final commissions.
In 1923 his friend Arnold Robinson had bought Joseph Bell of Bristol and the two would collaborate on many commissions over the following decades.
His work shows great imagination and strength, and while inspired by Whall, is very individual in character and outlook. Among his many windows in England, New Zealand, and South Africa, the series at Fenham, Northumberland, and his window in the north aisle of Salisbury Cathedral are especially remembered.
Sources:
Edward Woore’s obituary in The Journal of Stained Glass Vol. XIII No. 2 1960-61
Stained Glass Marks and Monograms. Complied by Joyce Little (London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002)
