Known professionally as Geoffrey Webb he was a stained-glass artist and designer of church furnishings, based for most of his career in East Grinstead. Nephew of the architect Sir Aston Webb and a pupil of Charles Eamer Kempe and Sir Ninian Comper. His work draws on the Gothic Revival tradition and can be identified by his artistic signature, a spider's web.
Much information about this man can be found on his . Our colleague, Andrew Behan, advises that Geoffrey Fuller Webb was born on 5 August 1879 in Salisbury House, Turnham Green, Chiswick, Middlesex (now Greater London), the second of the seven children of Edward Alfred Webb (1850-1929) and Emily Fuller Webb née Howes (1853-1896). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1879 in the Brentford registration district, Middlesex (now Greater London). On 14 September 1879 he was baptised in Christ Church, Town Hall Avenue, Chiswick, where in the baptismal register his family were shown as residing at Salisbury House, Turnham Green and that his father was a wholesale druggist.
His six siblings were: Harold Edward Webb (1878-1944); Marjorie Mary Webb (1881-1966); Helen Laming Webb (1884-1975); Christopher Rahere Webb (1886-1966); Stephen Foster Webb (1888-1958) and Edward Oliver Webb (b.1892).
In the 1881 census he is shown as aged 1 year, living at Syrenga House, Front Common, Turnham Green, with his parents, his elder brother Harold Edward Webb and four female domestic servants. His father's occupation continued to be listed as a wholesale druggist. He was shown as aged 12 years in the 1891 census as a scholar who was boarding at his preparatory school at 4 St German's Place, Kidbrook, London.
On the night of the 1901 census he was shown as aged 21 years, an artist in stained glass, who was a visitor at 96 Clapton Common, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, the family home of Frederick Janson Hanbury (1851-1938) a wholesale druggist.
On 10 May 1902 he married Joan Hanbury Hanbury (1893-1970) at St Thomas's Church, Clapton Common, Hackney. On 26 March 1903 he was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London in the Worshipful Company of Braziers and Armourers having served for seven years as an apprentice to John Franklin-Adams since 2 January 1896.
He was shown in the 1911 census as aged 31 years, an artist in stained glass living with his wife in a 24 roomed property at , the home of his father-in-law, Frederick Janson Hanbury who described himself as a pharmaceutical chemist and wholesale druggist; his mother-in-law, Mary Jane Scarborough Hanbury née King (1849-1927); his brother-in-law, Reginald Janson Hanbury M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. (1877-1935), a manufacturing druggist; his sister-in-law, Faith Hanbury Hanbury (1885-1957), his sister-in-law, Mary Kathleen Franklin-Adams née Hanbury (1881-1965) and her husband, Bernard Inman Franklin-Adams (1882-1957), an insurance broker & underwriter with their two children, Joan Inman Franklin-Adams (1909-2001) and Elizabeth Inman Franklin-Adams (b.1911), together with two male servants, a chauffeur and an assistant in house & garage and seven female servants, a cook, a parlour maid, a kitchen maid, a serving maid, a nurse, a house maid and a laundry maid.
They had four children: Ursula Mary Webb (1915-1995); Anthony H. Webb (b.1918); Brendon J. Webb (b.1919) and Michael G. Webb (1921-1929).
His date of birth was confirmed in the 1939 England and Wales Register in which he is shown as a stained glass artist living at Sackville House, 70-72 High Street, East Grinstead, together with his wife and their daughter, Ursula Mary Webb who was described as an art student, incapacitated. Also listed was a female cook servant.
Probate records confirm that he had been living at Sackville House, East Grinstead and that he died, aged 74 years, on 20 January 1954 at The Queen Victoria Hospital, Holtye Road, East Grinstead. Probate was granted on 22 April 1954 to Bernard Inman Franklin-Adams, an insurance broker and to Leslie William Ernest Dungey, a solicitor. His effects totalled £2,881-16s-5d.
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