This week, the EBU welcomed Maryanne Roach, the great-niece of Robert Provost, to our head office in Aylesbury. Maryanne was visiting to view an oil painting of Robert Provost by Cowan Dobson, donated to the EBU by the Provost family. She was welcomed by our Office Manager Karen Durrell and Club Liaison Officer Jonathan Lillycrop. She is pictured with the painting and the Provost Cup, originally donated by Robert and for many years presented to the winners of the Spring Foursomes.
In the 1950’s Robert and his wife Sadie Provost owned the Crockfords Club, one of London’s oldest gaming clubs, after which the Crockfords Cup is named. Robert Provost died in 1960, survived by Sadie who died in 1975, they had no children.
This painting hung in the Crockfords Club until 1970, where upon enquiry from Ieuan Roach nephew of Sadie Provost, the painting was given to Ieuan so it could be hung in his aunt’s home until 1975. The painting since then has hung in both English and Spanish homes of Ieuan and his wife Beryl. With their passing in 2020 and 2022, their children and executors Philip and Maryanne Roach kindly donated the painting to the English Bridge Union.
Note: Also, Robert Provost in 1950 donated The Robert Provost Cup to the English Bridge Union for national and international bridge competitions.
Cowan Dobson - Artist
Born in Bradford to Scottish parents, Dobson spent most of his life in Scotland. He studied in Edinburgh and exhibited from a young age; at the Royal Academy from the age of nineteen and the Royal Scottish Academy from twenty-three. Dobson’s portraits focused on the ordinariness of his subjects, despite many of them being society sitters from Scotland and London. He worked in both oil and watercolour.
November 2, 2023