\n It has been a privilege during my life to write about some wonderful men and women from all walks of life.\n<\/p>\n
\n lt is now a quarter of a century since one legendary Norfolk character died at the age of 97.\n<\/p>\n
\n The late, great Norfolk artist John Mann (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n And if you have a painting on the wall signed S. J. Mann, then you will know who l am writing about.\n<\/p>\n
\n Salem John Mann was an artist often described as Van Dauber, Mr Paintbrush and the Master of Brush Strokes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Born in 1903, his father James was a farm labourer at Shotesham and he was was the sixth of eight children.\n<\/p>\n
\n Home on leave. John outside the family business in the 1920s (Image: Family collection)\n<\/p>\n
\n The family moved to Norwich to run a milk delivery business called the Swainsthorpe Dairy in Pembroke Road.\n<\/p>\n
\n One tragedy John did not talk about was when his three-year-old brother Sidney was killed when the horse and cart reared up.\n<\/p>\n
\n John attended Avenue School and aged 11 won a scholarship to Norwich School of Art. But this young boy did not just want to sit in the corner drawing and painting…\n<\/p>\n
\n John Mann during his time with the Dragoon Guards (Image: Family collection)\n<\/p>\n
\n He ran away from home when he was 14 but was caught and returned.\n<\/p>\n
\n The following year he joined the British Army, the 4th\/7th Dragoon Guards at 15 and served 10 years (1919-1929), eight of them in India.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was part of one of the last mounted cavalry charges during riots in India.\n<\/p>\n
\n John hated his time in the army. He said: “I was in the clink a few times during the worst ten years of my life.”\n<\/p>\n
\n But he was a tough guy who knew how to look after himself and won medals in the boxing ring.\n<\/p>\n
\n Looking back on an extraordinary life… Salem John Mann (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Heading home he got a job as a painter’s labourer before establishing his own sign-writing business with seven employees.\n<\/p>\n
\n This was a time when sign-writing was a real art form and no one pushed their luck with John.\n<\/p>\n
\n He once chased a customer who had not paid him down the street, and when a garage upset him he parked his van against the petrol pump for several hours so it couldn’t be used!\n<\/p>\n
\n John Mann with a painting of John Major (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n During the Second World War John served in the Home Guard and the military police.\n<\/p>\n
\n He returned to sign-writing and in 1970 “retired” to become one of the most prolific and popular painters in Norfolk and further afield.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Sometimes l work so fast my brushes start smoking,” he once told me.\n<\/p>\n
\n Supported all the way by the love of his life Ruth, they had two sons, Graham (who sadly died in 2013) and Alan, grandchildren and great grandchildren.\n<\/p>\n
\n John Mann with the love of his life Ruth, married for more than 65 years (Image: Family\u00a0 collection)\n<\/p>\n
\n They can all be so proud of Alan who painted a huge collection of pictures which people would queue up to buy at his annual exhibitions.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I love to portray people who have or have had a connection with Norfolk. People we can all be proud of,” he told me.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of his favourite paintings was of Princess Diana which he presented to her old school, Riddlesworth Hall.\n<\/p>\n
\n A visit to his Norwich studio was quite an experience . He loved painting people and places and was a true master of his craft.\n<\/p>\n
\n John died in 2001 but his memory lives on and his pictures continue to give us so pleasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a privilege during my life to write about some wonderful men and women from all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-517294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}