James G. Jeffs
When Dumfries Librarian G W Shirley took charge of
the Dumfries Museum in 1934 he appreciated
the range and quality of Tim's practical abilities, and offered him
a job as his Assistant. He was able to refurbish and redisplay the
museum to a high standard, and became Curator himself in 1941 when
Shirley's ill-health forced his retirement.
He took the opportunity in 1941 to teach wood and metalwork
in Dumfriesshire schools and eventually took a post in
Kirkcudbright Academy in 1945. In Kirkcudbright Tim and his wife
Mary were able to join the artistic community there, no doubt to
the pleasure of their friends Jessie M
King and E A Taylor, who had acted as
witnesses at their civil marriage in Kirkcudbright in
1938.
Illness forced his early retirement from teaching, but Tim
carried on in Kirkcudbright as an independent craftsman, and after
1945 became famous for his carved Presentation Caskets and Burgess
Tickets, commissioned by burghs across Scotland to honour people
such as Sir Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower. The range of
Tim Jeffs' work is illustrated in this exhibition - he was an
artist, designer, sculptor, wood carver, calligrapher and textile
worker. He and his wife Mary and daughter Justine, lived at The
Yellow Door, 9 High Street
He died in 1975 after a tragic boating accident on Loch
Ken.
