Kenneth Edwin Wootton MC (1885–1974) was a student of the Royal Academy of Art between 1905 and 1910, and also attended classes at Clapham Art School. He was called up to the Tank Corp in 1915, where he fought in the trenches of the Western Front. He was present at significant offensives, including the Battle of Passchendaele, and kept a diary and sketchbook as a means of documenting his time in the military. His career in the Army was cut short by an explosion in 1917, and he spent some time recovering at a hospital in Rouen in France. On his return from war he was awarded the Military Cross for his 'Conspicuous Gallantry'. After the war, Wootton settled in Coventry, where he taught at Bablake School and continued his practice as an artist.
The world-renowned collection at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne houses oil paintings by Wootton that exemplify his talents as a portraitist. His style resembles the work of other modern British artists of the period, including Augustus John, portrait painter Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer (Gertler's contemporary at the Slade), and work of the wider Bloomsbury and Camden Town Groups.
