1892 – Born 4th August at Cookham, ninth surviving child of William Spencer, organist and piano teacher, and his wife Anna (née Slack). Brother, Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE, RA, (1891- 1959)
1897 – With brother Stanley lead the Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Parade in Cookham
1909 – Attended the Ruskin School at Maidenhead
1911 – Studied woodcarving at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts
1912 – His brother Stanley exhibited in Roger Fry’s second Post- Impressionist Exhibition at the Grafton Galleries, London
1913 – Studied art at University College, Slade School of Fine Art
1914 – Won the Life Drawing Prize and is runner up for the Summer Exhibition prize with The Seven Ages of Man
1914-18 – World War I
1915 – Joint winner of the Summer Exhibition prize with Summer, a painting of Marsh Meadows in Cookham
Enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) stationed at Beaufort War Hospital, Bristol and then volunteered for active service and sent to Salonika, the Balkans, the Mediterranean and Egypt
Charged with making a picture of the Egyptian scene as an official war artist (IWM file ref 289/7)
1919 – Returned to the Slade where Hilda Carline is also studying and is welcomed into the Carline art circle in Hampstead.
Exhibited New Arrivals F.4. Ward…Sinai at The Nation’s War Painting and Other Records Exhibition at the Royal Academy over the winter of 1919-20
Exhibited at the Cambridge Exhibition, 6 King’s Parade, Cambridge
Elected to the New English Art Club
1920 – Elected to the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers
1921 – Lived with Tom and Mabel Nash at Caversham near Reading.
Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to make a WWI picture but when it had not been delivered by 1932, two other works were acquired in settlement (IWM file ref 289/7)
1922 – Death of mother Annie
1923 – Exhibited at the Goupil Gallery and meets Lady Ottoline Morrell who arranges accommodation at Garsington, Oxfordshire
1925 – Stanley married Hilda Carline, in February. At Hilda’s invitation Gilbert joined them on their honeymoon in Suffolk
Exhibited, with Stanley, at the Oxford Art Club Exhibition
1928 – Death of father, William Spencer
1929 – Death of Richard Carline signalling the end of the of the Downshire Hill art circle or circle pan-artistique
1930 – Married Ursula Bradshaw
Appointed to the staff of the Royal Academy by Ian Rothenstein
1932 – One-man show at the Goupil Gallery
Appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art
1934 – Commissioned to paint a mural depicting the foundation legend of John Balliol at Holywell Manor, Oxford
1936 – Settled with Ursula at Tree Cottage, Upper Basildon, Berkshire.
Holiday in Dorset
Birth of daughter Gillian in October
1939-1945 – World War II
1940 – Commissioned by the Imperial war Museum on 4 occasions as an Official War Artist (1940, 1942, 1943, 1944)
1941 – Removed with the Royal College of Art to Ambleside in the Lake District.
Painted Troops in the Countryside for the Imperial War Museum and commissioned to paint a portrait of John German
Active in the Home Guard as a subsection leader
1942 – Commissioned to paint Grasmere Home Guard
1943 – Commissioned by the Imperial war Museum to paint four portraits
1948 – Dismissed from the Royal College of Art by Robin Darwin.
Appointed Head of Painting at Glasgow College of Art
1950 – Appointed Head of Painting, Drawing, Modelling and Sculpture at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts
Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy
1951 – Commissioned by the Abbey Trust to paint a mural, The Scholar Gypsy, for University College, London
1957 – Retired from Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts
1959 – Death of Stanley Spencer
Death of Ursula Spencer
1960 – Elected a Member of the Royal Academy
1961 – Published a memoir of his brother: Stanley Spencer by his brother Gilbert
1964 – Retrospective exhibition at Reading arranged by the Fine Art Society
1970 – Moved to Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk
1972 – Grandson Glyn born
1974 – Published Memoirs of a Painter, Grandson Tudor born
1979 Death at Black Notley, Braintree
Obituary in The Times November 19
