William George Hobbs | |
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A self-portrait of William Hobbs
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Born | 16 May 1927 Alderney, Channel Islands |
Died | 29 September 2012 Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. |
(aged 85)
Education | Duke of York's Royal Military School, Dover, Kent, Devonport High School,(Evacuated to Penzance from Plymouth), West of England Academy of Art Bristol University University of Saskatchewan. Pan American University, Banff School of Fine Arts, |
Occupation | Physician, surgeon, and artist |
Spouse(s) | Married |
Parent(s) | Frederick Walter Haydn Hobbs, Anna Helena Hobbs(nee.Froseler) |
William George Reginald Hobbs was born on 16 May 1927 at Whitegates in Alderney, Channel Islands.
His family moved around considerably due to his father’s career in the British Army. The family eventually settled in his fathers home town of Plymouth in the county of Devon. During the Second World War, William along with his three brothers Frederick, John and Dennis were evacuated from blitz-torn Plymouth to Penzance. Just after Victory in Europe, but still during World War II, William did his military service and received a scholarship to study medicine. He went to Bristol University where he also realized and developed a talent for art. His sketches and paintings were admired by art teachers at the University who advised him to study art rather than medicine. Nonetheless, William Hobbs graduated from Bristol with a degree as a general practitioner in medicine. He then joined the Royal Navy in the tradition of his family and became a ship's surgeon in 1950.
William Hobbs emigrated to Canada in 1959. In Canada he began a career as a physician and surgeon in the village Gainsborough, Saskatchewan and became a respected physician in the southeast Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba area. Notwithstanding the considerable demands in time alone imposed upon him by his role in this rural community, he managed to develop a technical skill in painting which won him first prize in a major Canadian art show in 1978. William Hobbs also attended courses at the Pan American University, Banff School of Fine Arts, and the Emma Lake Campus at the University of Saskatchewan.