Wilfrid Ariel Evill - Died 1963

Mr. Wilfrid Evill, who died on 10th February, 1963, was a great supporter of fencing. He was a member of the Salle Bertrand Fencing Club and of the London Fencing Club and, although he never had ambitions to win championships, his height and strength made him a formidable épéeist and he was of the generation which enjoyed club fencing for its own sake.

A noted collector, especially of antique furniture and porcelain, and of modern pictures, Wilfred Evill had an original mind and manner and a zest for the good things of life which would have made him at home in the Regency period. He was a great supporter of the Epée Club, of which he was Hon. Treasurer for many years, and in 1939 donated a silver cup to the Club. He rarely missed the annual dinner and will be remembered by the many who knew him as a loyal friend.

[By profession a solicitor, he represented several artists, among them Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland, Lucian Freud, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, and supported them by buying many of their works. It was with Spencer that he struck up a particularly strong friendship, amassing the largest private collection of his work. Wilfrid Evill left his collection of 117 paintings and sculptures to his ward Honor Frost. After she died,, it was sold at Sotheby’s in 2011 and was billed as “the greatest collection of 20th-century British art ever to come to the market”, selling for more than £41 million.]