LEADER , Benjamin William, RA (1831-1923)
Biography
Benjamin Williams Leader RA (12 March 1831 – 22 March 1923) was an English landscape painter.Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the son, and first child of eleven children, of notable civil engineer Edward Leader Williams. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester.
In 1854, at the age of 23, he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy Schools in London, and, unusually, in his first year, had a picture accepted for exhibition there, \\\'Cottage Children Blowing Bubbles\\\'. Subsequently his work appeared in every Summer Exhibition at the Academy until 1922, when Leader was 91 years old. He also had some early works exhibited at the National Institution, Portland Place in 1857–58.
In 1857 he changed his name to Benjamin Williams Leader to distinguish himself from the many other painters with the surname Williams.
