A concise biography of Humphrey Waterfield
Adapted from Jean Cornell, “A Dual Life: An Assessment of the Gardens Designed by Humphrey Waterfield, 1908–71”, MA in Garden History, University of Buckingham, 2015. In 1976, Hugh Johnson, writing as Tradescant in The Garden, described Waterfield as: “the most sensitive and original designer of gardens of the last generation”. During his lifetime, Waterfield’s garden, Hill Pasture in Essex and his other designed gardens, were well known and featured in articles in Country Life, Ideal Home, and House & Garden. Early Life & Education Derick Humphrey Waterfield was born in August 1908 at Hagley Hall, Rugeley, Staffordshire, the home of his maternal grandfather, John Pritt Gardner, a solicitor and land agent. His mother, Barbara, an only child, was brought up by her father and his unmarried sister. His father and paternal grandfather, Sir Henry Waterfield, were both in the Indian Civil Service. In 1911, when John Pritt Gardner died, Barbara Waterfield inherited £83,500, about £9.2 million today. In 1912, the Waterfields bought Clos du Peyronnet in Menton, on the French Riviera, where they tended to spend the winter, returning to England for the summer. During the First World War, the Waterfields had to remain in Menton, and Humphrey Waterfield became fluent in French. In 1918–1921, Waterfield went to Templegrove, a prep school, and then to Eton (1922–1926) before reading History at Christchurch College, Oxford (1927– 1930), where he achieved a first class degree. Whilst at Oxford, he decided to become an artist, and studied at Ruskin College with Albert Rutherston (1881–1953), before moving on to the Slade in the early 1930s. His early paintings were well received.
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