Architect and artist
Charles found his formative education unfulfilling, boarding at several schools around the country which he called ‘Graveyards of Imagination’ and ‘Factories of Boredom’.
He went on to qualify as an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, working on various projects in London. Alongside his flair for architectural design and illustration, he loved to draw and paint for pleasure.
When his father died in St Kitts in 1911, Charles inherited a share of the sugar business, and had enough income to stop architectural practice and to devote himself to artistic pursuits and building his collection. He remained an active book illustrator, exhibiting periodically at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Cotswold Arts and Crafts Exhibition.
Charles was enlisted into the Royal Engineers during the First World War. While in France he spotted a sales advertisement for Snowshill Manor in Country Life magazine.
A home for his collection
After the First World War Charles purchased Snowshill, a Tudor manor house with an adjacent cottage and 14 acres of land. He discovered it in a terrible state of repair and immediately set to work remodelling and restoring the house, turning the farmyard into an Arts and Crafts garden with the help of architect M. H. Baillie Scott (1865–1945). While his collection took pride of place in the manor house, Charles set up home in the small Priest’s House opposite.
Word of his collection soon spread among writers and artists, and he welcomed several famous figures to Snowshill in the early 20th century, including J.B. Priestly, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene and even Queen Mary.
Charles created his own coat of arms which bore the motto ‘Let nothing perish’, an overt statement on his passion for collecting and craftsmanship.
Marriage and death
Charles was in his 60s when he met his future wife, vicar’s daughter Mary Graham (1902–99). They married in 1946 and lived at Snowshill Manor before spending increasing amounts of time in St Kitts from the early 1950s. After the death of his mother and the close of the Second World War, Charles assumed the full management of the family plantation business.