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Two extraordinarily positive testimonials, especially significant coming from one of the leading educationalists of his age, and also of interest considering the fact that Whaite would follow Nunn to the London Institute. (Whaite was first cousin twice removed of his more famous namesake. He was himself an excellent artist and teacher, and there is a large collection of his work at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester.) ONE: Written by Nunn as Principal, London County Council, London Day Training College (University of London), Southampton Row, London, WC1. On College letterhead; 28 June 1928. 1p.,4to. On aged paper, with closed tears and pin holes.'Mr. Whaite has thrown himself into the work with the utmost energy, has sought to get full value out of every part of it, and leaves behind him the impression that he is one of the most sincere, thoughtful and honest students we have had in any department of the college work. As a technician we put him in the first rank of our teachers, and his work at Harrow School and at St. Martin's School of Art - where he received the very unusual compliment of being entrusted with real responsibility - has been in every way excellent. [.] There is, in short, no place of education where his great love of beauty, his competence as a teacher and the simple directness of his character would not be a valuable influence for good.' TWO: Written by Nunn ('Formerly Director of the Institute of Education | Emeritus Professor of Education in the University of London') to futher Whaite's application for the post of HM Inspector of Art. From 83 Manor Drive, Wembley Middlesex; 5 August 1937. 2pp., 4to. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with rust-staining to first page from paperclip. Nunn begins: 'I have known Mr. H. Clarence Whaite since the year 1926, when - being an art master at Alleyn's School, Dulwich - he applied for admission to the course of training for teachers of art at London Day Training College (now the Institute of Education). Mr. Whaite's application was unusual; but I was impressed so favourably by our interview and by the high opinion his headmaster had formed of him, that I admitted him to the course for the year 1927-8, so that he might enjoy the advantage to be obtained under Rules 109. He more than justified the special consideration that had been shown to him; for he proved to be not only the outstanding student of the year and a teacher of most uncommon ability, but also a man of fine character, who won the esteem and respect of his teachers and fellow-students, and the possessor of a mind at once sensitive and critical. Miss Marion Richardson [(1892-1946), celebrated educationalist], from whom his typical modesty and sincerity of outlook permitted him, notwithstanding his relative maturity, to learn a great deal, thought so highly of him that, upon her retirement from the college, she warmly recommended me to appoint Mr. Whaite as her successor. I followed the advice with very happy results'. The second page continues in the same vein, with Nunn stating that 'when Miss C. von Wyss retired from the Institute in 1936, I recommended that her work in connexion with the teaching of art should be entrusted to Mr. Whaite, feeling confident that he would maintain its high tradition.' From the Whaite papers.
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