sir stanley spencer, cbe ra (30 june 1891 – 14 december 1959) was an english painter. shortly after leaving the slade school of art, spencer became well known for his paintings depicting biblical scenes occurring as if in cookham, the small village beside the river thames where he was born and spent much of his life. spencer referred to cookham as "a village in heaven" and in his biblical scenes, fellow-villagers are shown as their gospel counterparts. spencer was skilled at organising multi-figure compositions such as in his large paintings for the sandham memorial chapel and the "shipbuilding on the clyde" series, the former being a first world war memorial while the latter was a commission for the war artists' advisory committee during the second world war.