Percy Francis Gethin

Although born in Holywell House on the shores of Lough Gill in Sligo, Gethin spent most of his life in England. He was educated at Rossall, a public school in Lancashire and studied briefly at the Royal College of Art in London. He worked as a teacher of ‘life and composition’ with Frederick V. Burridge, first in Liverpool City School of Art and later at the Central School of Art and Crafts in London. Gethin began etching while in Liverpool but generally pulled only a few proofs of each plate. In late 1912 he was introduced to the London art dealers Colnaghi and Olbach, who editioned and exhibited his work. Harold Wright, their print specialist, collected many of Gethin’s etchings, which are now in the British Museum’s collection. Despite being over forty at the outbreak of war Gethin enlisted in the ‘Artists’ Rifles’. He was gazetted to the Devonshire Regiment in March 1915. He was killed in action at the Somme in June 1916.