Alick Riddell Sturrock RSA 10/06/1885-16/05/1953

Alick Riddell Sturrock was born in Edinburgh on 10^th June 1885, the son of Mr. Alex. Sturrock of the British Linen Bank and his wife Katherine Riddell.

He was educated at George Watson's College and, like so many members of the Academy in the past, he started by serving an apprenticeship as a lithographic artist and attending evening classes at the old School of Art at the Mound. Later he attended the Royal Scottish Academy Life Class and was awarded a travelling scholarship which enabled him to spend some time in Italy, Paris, Munich and Holland. 

From then, and indeed from student days, he contributed landscapes to the annual exhibitions and these, as the years passed, developed into a highly personal form of expression. For him the wild and untamed had little attraction, his interests lay rather in the cultivated straths in and around the farms and in the homesteads of the pastoral lands; first of all in the Borders, then on Solwayside, where for some years he lived at the Gatehouse-of-Fleet, with occasional excursions into England, to Cumberland, Dorset and Suffolk, but with Edinburgh and its environments as an ever present inspiration, with colour, in quiet harmonies, and pattern, in endless diversity, as his constant preoccupation.  He was a "Modern" in that he belonged to his time, and a "Traditionalist" in that his roots were deep in the native School.

Mr. Sturrock lived a full life. In the 1914-18 War he served with the Royal Scots with the rank of Captain, and after being wounded at Arras in 1917 he was in command of First Army camouflage. He took an active part in the work of the Society of Scottish Artists; he was a former President of the Scottish Arts Club. In 1929 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and full member in 1937. He identified himself completely with the interests and well-being of the Academy.

He was particularly active in the Academy's educational schemes and maintained a close link with the students and younger painters. From 1938 till 1947 he was Treasurer and held a firm hand on the Academy's finances. In March 1953 he was elected Secretary, an office which, unfortunately, he held only for two months. He died while on holiday at St. Abbs on 16^th May.

In 1918 he married Mis Mary Newbery, daughter of Fra. H. Newbery, Principal of Glasgow School of Art.

RSA Obituary, transcribed from the 1953 RSA Annual Report