Stanley Dyson (1920–2007) was an art teacher and Outsider Art artist. Early life and education Stanley Dyson was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire on 24 July 1920, the only child of George and Mary Alice Dyson. Stanley's mother was born Mary Alice Bowler and she died of pneumonia on 13 February 1926, aged 33, when Stanley was 5. It is thought that Stanley then moved to either Holymoorside or Newbold to live on a farm. Stanley's father George carried on living at 35 Church Street, Old Whittington which still stands today. Stanley went to school in Whittington and left at 16 to work as a clerk at the Sheep Bridge Works. As a teenager, just before World War II, Stanley took measurements and followed up on local details of churches and old houses in Derbyshire for Pevsner and his 'Buildings of England' series. Stanley later moved to Norfolk in 1966 when his daughter was two and after that he stopped painting. In 1941 -1946, Stanley joined the navy and became a 'Stores Petty Officer', in charge of 'victualling and messing'. He spent much of his time in Jamaica and was there until 1944. He was released from his duties on 5 August 1946. After being demobbed, he returned home to live with his father, now in his 70s. The register of electors for 1946/7confirms that he was living at 35 Church Street with George and with Ada Dyson. He did not return to his job as a clerk at the Steel Works. The post-war shortage of teachers, and schemes devised to encourage their training, would have provided just the sort of opportunity he needed to start his artistic career. In the Autumn of 1949 and the Spring of 1950, Stanley enrolled at the famous art school where John Lennon went at a later date, Liverpool College of Art. This was possible with one of the government-funded grants for ex-servicemen and his excellent service reports would have helped in getting him on to this scheme. It is unknown how formally Stanley had already been teaching before 1950, but in that year, on leaving art school, he returned to Whittington to teach art in the local New Whittington Secondary School and to marry Kathleen Allman, the daughter of a farmer from Holymoorside. He moved out of the Dysons' cottage and they went to live in Holymoorside. Art teacher Stanley taught pottery as well