My friend Vernon Rose, who has died aged 87, was a painter, sculptor, performer, poet, novelist, singer and musician. In the 1970s he became a Punch and Judy “professor” (as performers are known) with his Celebrated Theatre of Delights, for which he made the beautiful fit-up, or tent, as well as the puppets and props. He was a star turn at the annual professors’ convention in Covent Garden, London, and was highly influential in the revival of the art, touring the UK and Ireland on and off for about 15 years.
He was a craftsman able to make anything – and make it beautifully. He made toys, models, dolls houses and clothes for his children. He made a hurdy-gurdy and a singing clockwork linnet. He carved and painted several ship’s figureheads to adorn a millionaire’s yacht as well as buildings in Kew, west London, and Mousehole in Cornwall. He made TV props including a giant robot and a cigar-store Indian.
Born in Manchester, Vernon inherited handicraft and performing skills from his father, William, manager in a cotton mill; his mother, Edith (nee Parker), also worked in the mill. Vernon attended Audenshaw grammar school and then Manchester Art College, where he studied sculpture. Soon after, he moved to St Ives in Cornwall, where he met his future wife, Sheila Hardy. They married in 1953.
Rose played and sang with a skiffle group, later forming a blues group, Rover, with his close friend and fellow performer Tony “Doc” Shiels, with whom he also toured a magic show for which he designed and made a contraption for sawing a lady in half, a substitution trunk and a working guillotine. He was a regular, too, at Falmouth folk club in the 70s, and he was described as “an icon of the Cornish folk scene”, his powerful and melodic voice “like molten honey”, by “John the Fish” (John Langford), himself widely regarded as the godfather of that scene.
In 1981 he moved to Suffolk to work with Taffy Thomas (who later become the UK’s first laureate for storytelling) and his community arts company, Magic Lantern.
There Vernon’s output of paintings was prolific and continued even after he was registered blind in 2004 as a result of macular degeneration. In his own words, “I then ignored such restricting trivialities as perspective, relative size and viewpoint.”
His last creative achievement was the completion of a three-part semi-autobiographical novel. It is an ode to some of his passions, including magic, Romany culture and sailing boats, as well as his great friendship with Tony Shiels.
Vernon is survived by his second wife, Jan (nee Rayner), whom he married in 1998, and her sons, Roger and Tim; by Rachel, Christian and Morwenna, his children with Sheila; and by seven grandchildren, Tristan, Joseph, Samuel, Sarah, Eugene, Zoe and Max, and a great-granddaughter, Ava.
