Sir Stanley Spencer KCB CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Well known for his work depicting Biblical scenes, from miracles to the Crucifixion and Resurrection, occurring as if in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent much of his life, Spencer was also a war artist, acting in this official capacity in WWII. Furthermore, he was an accomplished landscape artist and portrait painter. Spencer referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven." In his biblical scenes, fellow-villagers are modeled as their Gospel counterparts, lending Christian teachings an eerie immediacy. Cookham houses the Stanley Spencer Gallery, whilst one of Spencer's famous large-scale works, commemorating events in WWI, is in the Sandham Memorial Chapel.