In 1966 DW and Joan visited the South Seas. At the instigation of Lady Jakeway, the wife of the Governor of Fiji, they visited St Elizabeth’s Home for discharged Lepers, and there they met the artist Semisi Maya.
DW and Joan were much taken by his works, and arranged for an exhibition in London. Neither DW nor the Bond Street Galleries, where the exhibition was held, took any profit from the exhibition, with all the proceeds going to the artist and the Home in equal measure.
The paintings sold well, but due to an appalling co-incidence there was no press coverage. The opening day of the exhibition - 5th June 1967 - was also the opening day of the Six Day War launched by Israel against Syria, Jordan and Egypt, and minds were occupied elsewhere.
References : Phil Baker pp 555 –557.
Provenance : Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, Leeds University Library
(MS 1942)
