This week we publish a third extract from Surbiton resident Beryl Williams' biography of Sutton painter Elva Blacker.

Hanging in the chapel of RAF Biggin Hill was Elva's altar-piece painting, but in 1946 she borrowed it for an exhibition at Egmont Corner.

While the painting was on loan to her, the chapel caught fire and was completely destroyed but the painting survived. Later, when a new chapel was built, the painting was returned to Biggin Hill and hangs today in the new St George's Chapel of Remembrance.

There remains a mystery about this work. In October 1975, the Evening Standard revealed that an unfinished picture of two pilots had been discovered under the brown paper backing of the painting.

A search for Elva Blacker and the two pilots was instigated, and by December, Elva had been traced to her Sutton home and invited to Biggin Hill to examine the painting.

She was able to date it to 1944, but not able to identify the men featured. Unable also to explain why it was unfinished, she thought the men may have been posted away or shot down before it could be completed, and the outline of a third person in the picture had been abandoned because of lack of space for him.

"I expect I was short of canvas when I came to paint the chapel and that's why I used the other side," she explained.

After the war ended, the old family home at Egmont Corner was divided up into flats, with Elva and her mother living on the ground floor and letting the others to tenants.

This was to be Elva's permanent home until her death, although her travels over the years took her at times far away from Sutton for long periods.

She was a founder member of the Sutton Arts Society, with the painter Graham Sutherland becoming president.

He had lived and attended school locally and later studied art at Epsom College.

Although his old school has gone, the office block which now stands on the site is named Sutherland House.

Some post-war travels by Elva were made on her motorcycle, on which she rode for miles around the country, sketching and painting expeditions mostly working on landscapes in watercolour.

During one of her overseas journeys, on receiving news from American General John Munroe one of her tenants at Egmont Corner that the husband of a young couple who rented another flat had been made redundant, her kindly nature led her to offer them rent-free accommodation.

August 21, 2002 10:30