About Bob

Robert Sydney Steel (Bob) was born in Sheffield on 28th May 1943. He was the eldest of four sons, and was educated at Andover Secondary Modern School and then joined the Navy. During this time he met Chris and they married four years later

After a short spell in the Navy, Bob worked for the MOD at RAF Andover in the Traffic Control office, he was then transferred to the MOD Police, but didn't stay there long as he was unable to adapt to shift work, in particular the night work which caused him to develop the insomnia which he suffered from for the rest of his life.

Bob returned to the Civil Service working in the dockyard at Plymouth. Having moved on promotion to Corsham in 1971, he eventually left the civil service in 1974 and took a job in Bowyers the food processing factory in Trowbridge as a temporary position. However working permenently on the 6am to 2pm shift suited Bob and seemed to help with his insomnia, he could also use the afternoons to devote his time to his creative gifts - painting, poetry and the classical guitar. Bob stayed at Bowyers until he retired.

Below are pictures of his studio room in their house

Bob was a very happy and quick witted person who kept Chris laughing and happy throughout the lives together. They both had the spirit of adventure and when they were about 30, they both gave up their jobs to embark on a 6 month camping tour of Italy. There are many paintings from this period. (See Italy in galleries) Many other holidays were taken, more often than not with the object of painting inspiration. A lot of his paintings are of the English Countryside.