5885

Captain Robert Bruce Reford 1915

Half-length to the left, head almost full-face and looking to the viewer, wearing the service dress of the Sherwood Foresters

Oil on canvas, 78.8 x 55.9 cm (31 x 22 in.)

Inscribed lower left: P A de László / 1915 VII London

Laib L7927(238) / C12(15)

Laib L7844(56) / C23(6)  

NPG Album 1915-16, p. 22: from Canada 

Sitters’ Book I, f. 104: R. Bruce Reford July 22nd 1915

Private Collection

Though born in Canada, Robert Reford was educated in England and at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 he was commissioned as a Captain with the Sherwood Foresters. De László painted some thirty portraits of officers in 1915, and reduced his fees to £100 in respect for their service to his adopted country. The sitter’s mother, Mrs Robert Wilson Reford [5883], was also painted in December 1915. 

Robert Bruce Stephen Reford was born 16 April 1895 in Montreal, Canada, son of Robert Wilson Reford (1867-1951) and his wife, née Elsie Meighen (1872-1967). He studied at Rugby and New College, Oxford. He travelled widely in Europe and spoke French and German fluently. He served with the Sherwood Foresters in France until 1916 when he transferred to the Irish Guards. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1917. In early 1919 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Lord French, Viceroy of Ireland and spent a year in Ireland before returning to the Irish Guards.

In 1938 he succeeded Colonel John Sidney North FitzGerald as Regimental Lieutenant Colonel and held that appointment until September 1939, when he took command of 169th (3rd London) Infantry Brigade. He played a considerable part in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in June 1940 and was Mentioned in Despatches. After the war he held three further military posts before retirement, serving with Southern Command, a sub-district in Scotland and finally the War Office.  

In 1920 he married Evelyn Margaret Robinson MacInnes (1899-1993), daughter of William Robinson MacInnes and Margaret Cross. There were three children of the marriage. He was divorced and later married Elspeth Fraser-Stephen on 13 January 1954.

He retired to Quebec and died there in 1972.

KF 2020