Home

PAT MOODY – ARTIST (19th December 1913 - 5th April 2002)

Pat Moody must rank as one of the most memorable residents of Deal.  Through her character and art she has found a place in people’s hearts and awareness, locally, nationally and internationally.

After an active life, the full extent of Pat’s immense gift became apparent to her closest friends and later the General Public only after her death in Deal, in April 2002. This was entirely due to the discovery and examination of the copious records and the extensive body of her life’s work which she left behind.

Born just before World War I, in the St John’s Wood district of London, a rich, well educated, indulged little girl, with a German nanny, Pat and her younger brother, Billy, enjoyed an easy childhood.  She had a modern, young mother - lovely, elegant, artistically talented and a striking and an equally youthful father soon, with the advent of war, to become a dashing officer. Pat admired him above everyone.

When she was seven or eight years old, her life changed radically – for the worse. Nanny disappeared, her parents divorced; her mother leaving for a spell in Zanzibar and her father dying soon after.

Within a short space of time her ordered, pampered life was gone. No more the elegant school or protected atmosphere.  Life was thrown at her and growing up quickly, Pat met every challenge the hard way, head on, never flinching.

On the threshold of womanhood, ignoring difficulties and grabbing at any and every opportunity, she immersed herself in studies in order to acquire skills which would enable her to quickly earn a living.  Secretarial qualifications as well as language courses in German and French followed and always, drawing.

With a sense of adventure and her mother’s encouragement, travel abroad seemed the thing. Germany beckoned and once there she put her newly acquired qualifications to use.  In love with a young German, she spent two or three years, happily fulfilled until political developments under the Nazi regime resulted in her mother’s insistence on her return to England.

Back home she served a stint as a much appreciated secretary for a major insurance company. With an eye on the looming conflict Pat decided to enter the nursing profession, progressing from Probationer, to SRN, State Certified Midwife, and later Sister Tutor, before joining Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.

She served her country at home and in the North African campaign.  In 1943, worn out by her exertions, she fell victim to Tuberculosis and was invalided out of the army in December of that year. She underwent the traumatic treatment of the time in the King Edward VII military hospital.

During her illness and in the dark days of her slow convalescence in hospital, encouraged by her doctors, Pat once again took up her artist’s tools to rediscover the skills she had acquired before the war at the highly prestigious St John’s Wood Art Schools.  This proved to be a momentous step towards her physical and emotional recovery.

Restored to a degree of good health Pat again travelled abroad, staying with close friends in France Italy and Spain before returning permanently to Deal and Walmer. She attended St Martin’s Art School in Canterbury and immersed herself in the principal passion of her life - her art.

Of the town, already familiar to her from the many holidays spent in Middle Street, where her mother had a holiday home, Pat said “When I came to Deal I never wanted to be anywhere else.”

With hindsight, the few extant sketches from her time in Germany can be viewed as harbingers of the output which was to flow from her prolific mind after her return to England. Whether as a trainee, midwife or qualified nurse, in a civilian environment or on active service and finally in Deal, Pat’s creative hand translated her observations of humanity into a memorable series of cartoons, woodcuts, paintings and sketches.

Inspired by her dedication to people, informed by her own experience of suffering and hardship, Pat recorded significant events such as the miner’s strikes and the flood of 1978, as well as the everyday activities of the town. All these she drew, painted or, as an avid and talented camera woman, photographed.

Despite her war service – during which she attained the rank of Lieutenant - and her invalidity, Pat’s monthly pension was a meagre £2.00. She augmented this at various times by driving a taxi, working on the ferry boats out of Dover and selling greetings and post cards as well as calendars, which she designed and illustrated. These activities brought her into contact with people with whom she deeply empathised and sooner or later, so movingly portrayed. Surmounting all adversity she deepened her talent on all levels.

Pat was also a prime mover in the saving of Deal and in particular, Middle Street, where developers wished to tear down the old buildings and replace them with modern.  Her drawings of the streets and individual buildings literally gave life to the old town.

Devoted to HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, every Christmas Pat faithfully sent HM her last drawing of the year.  The annual letters of thanks in the Queen’s name from Mr Ayrd, her Private Secretary, are among Pat’s records.

Posthumous exhibitions in the Deal Library (June 2002) - an astonishing 400 people attended the library on one day; the Astor Theatre (September 2004), Deal Maritime and History Museum (August 2005) and the rooms of Deal Art (September 2005) were all reported on local radio and television, reaching a large public which values her talent, sense of humour, love of live and respect for others.

Recognition has already been won for Pat with a display of her paintings forming part of the permanent collection of Walmer Castle under the auspices of English Heritage. In the autumn, examples will also be placed in Dover and Deal Castles. The Landmark Community Centre in Deal plays host to an ever-changing exhibition of her work.

National appreciation has come with her cartoons and memorabilia in the permanent collections of the National Army Museum and the Royal College of Nursing in Edinburgh.  There is an incisive portrait of the musician, John Ireland, together with his letters to Pat and her mother in the collection of the Royal College of Music - Ireland was a familiar figure in the Kings Head, Deal, where he played for the fishermen on Friday nights.  Pat’s portrait of him also features in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery.

Locally, Pat’s memory is held in great affection by the families of the fishermen she painted. Her driving skills made her something of a town celebrity. An Advanced Driver, she was the proud owner of an Austin Healey ‘Sprite’, a Toyota Celica, 2 litre, GT Coupé and a BSA, Bantam D1 motorbike. Primarily, however, she was a familiar sight as, wielding her pencils, brushes and paint, she captured some or other aspect of the people and town she loved and in doing so, conferred an immortality that even now brings her subjects to vibrant life.