Ronald Fleming (interior decorator)

Ronald Fleming was born in Scotland, the son of a medical doctor from Kelso.^[1]

He attended Epsom College and then, in the 1920s, studied interior design at the New York School in Paris.^[1]

Between his study in England and France, he served during World War I with the Cold Stream Guards.^[2]

In 1931 he worked in Paris with Keeble Ltd (Keeble Ltd had its office in London at Carlisle House).^[3] He worked also for Kelso Ltd and Arundell Clarke. In 1932 he opened, and managed, the decoration department at Fortnum & Mason. In 1949 he became the director of Mann and Fleming Ltd.^[1]

In 1931 he published Talk on Decoration.^[2]

In 1932 he organized the exhibition "Modern Designs for Mural Decoration" at Carlisle House, opened by Osbert Sitwell and including works, among others, by Roger Fry, Duncan Grant and Edward Halliday.^[4] He also gave lectures on ethos and technique.^[2]

Fleming was friends with Roy De Maistre and in 1953 he bought Flower Piece, which passed to Adrian Brookholding-Jones, grand-son of the sculptor Adrian Jones, and then sold at Brookholding-Jones' death.^[5]

His commissions included: the ballroom in the Royal Palace in Athens for King George II of Greece; the Penthouse Suite at the Dorchester Hotel, together with Oliver Messel; the interiors of Dalmeny House for Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery; stage sets and murals.^[1]

Fleming lived at 20, Thurloe Square, London. In magazines of the time, he was often introduced as a bachelor interior designer, a subtle way to say that he was gay. The same applied to Oliver Frederick Ford, Carl Toms and Alan Tagg.^[2] Fleming lived all his adult life, until death, with Geoffrey Houghton-Brown (1903-1993), an authority on 18th-century French furniture.^[6]

The Ronald Fleming interior decorator papers, 1915 - 1976 are held by the Archive of Art & Design of the Victoria & Albert Museum.^[7] Many of Fleming’s books were bequeathed to the London Library.