Some months ago I wrote about St Philip’s Church, Cosham, and Sir Ninian Comper, one of the greatest church architects of the first half of the 20th century. His main rival was Martin Travers, whose work I described recently in connection with the former Garrison Church at Longmoor. Their careers overlapped, but they seldom encroached on each other’s territory. Comper was a member of the establishment and an ardent Anglo-Catholic. He was also an architect, whereas Travers was first and foremost a decorator, a craftsman and stained glass artist. He was born in Kent in 1886 and trained at the Royal College of Art before taking a post in Comper’s firm for a short time.

He was a private and unconventional man whose family life was disastrous, and he had little time for authority. Surprisingly, in view of the fact that most of his work was beautifying Anglican churches and that he was heavily involved with the Society of SS. Peter and Paul, he became an agnostic after the First World War, often displaying cynicism over his own work.

He died of a heart attack in 1948 at the age of 62, and his death deprived us of major projects at the Temple Church and Ely cathedral, as well as the cathedral in Gibraltar.

We are fortunate in Hampshire to be able to see a good deal of Travers’ work close at hand. The earliest is at Cheriton, where he designed four windows in 1920 to commemorate the four nephews of Mrs M.A.P. Egerton, who had been killed in the war. They are all dressed as mediaeval knights, representing Honour, Loyalty, Duty and Courage, and each window contains scenes from the Bible and the Mort d’Arthur.

In 1927 Travers submitted drawings for the west tower at St. Mary’s, Liss, but they were rejected in favour of a design by Edward Maufe, the architect of Guildford Cathedral. However, three years later he was commissioned to provide an English altar with a gilded reredos showing Our Lady and the Christ Child, which remains today in fine condition. The four riddel posts are still there, too, though the curtains have gone.

Next came his work at Longmoor, which I have described before. Since then, however, I have obtained a photograph of how the chancel at St Martin’s looked before it was demolished, showing the reredos in situ. It must be admitted, however, that Travers’ stained glass in the nave is far better displayed today at Leconfield than it ever was in the church for which it was intended.

There is minor work at Bentworth and Bentley, and during and just after the war he returned to make windows at Liss and another at Cheriton, However, some of the best work of his last period is at St. Mary’s Church, Bramshott. There he provided three fine lancet windows in the east wall of the chancel. featuring the arms of all the Canadian provinces, to commemorate the encampment of Canadian troops on Bramshott Common during both wars.

Fashion, as well as the ravages of time, has deprived us of much of Travers’ work. The new liturgical arrangements of the last thirty years, whereby the altar has often been brought forward from the east end of the church in the manner Comper forsaw at Cosham, have resulted in many being separated from the reredos behind, sometimes replaced by a totally unworthy structure. Travers’ carefully crafted arrangements have often been so disfigured, but in Hampshire we are lucky. His visions at Liss, Cheriton, Bramshott, and in the abbey churches at Beaulieu and Romsey remain intact, worthy mementoes of a great man.

Tom Muckley, July 2007

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

tommuckley.co.uk