W. G. Collingwood

William Gershom Collingwood was born in 1854 and has a long association with Cumbria. He was an author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts.

Collingwood was born in Liverpool and attended University College, Oxford. It was there that the young Collingwood met John Ruskin – the writer and art critic. The two became good friends and once Collingwood had been to visit Ruskin at his home Brantwood in Coniston and its 360 degree view of the lake, he fell in love with the area.

Collingwood moved to Coniston and began a long working relationship with Ruskin. He served as his assistant which included travelling to Switzerland which is where he met his wife Edith. The two of them later settled in the Lake District – in Coniston not far from his friend John Ruskin.

In 1896 the writer Arthur Ransome met Collingwood and became a friend of the family. Ransome learned to sail in Collingwood’s boat ‘Swallow’ and those wonderful memories of family time on the lake inspired his most famous creation ‘Swallows and Amazons.’ Such was his love of the Collingwood family, he even named some of the book’s characters after Collingwood’s grandchildren – who he taught to sail in his own boat ‘Swallow II.’

Collingwood’s long association with Ruskin included editing many of the writer’s texts and even publishing a biography about Ruskin in 1893. He founded the Ruskin Museum in Coniston in 1901 which is still open today.

A skill for painting allowed him to join the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society where he became their chief writer. He also founded the Lake Artists Society.

Collingwood joined the Admiralty intelligence division during the First World War following which he returned to Coniston to continue writing. He died in 1932 not long after his wife and was buried in Coniston.