Ray Leigh MBE March 2025

Ray Leigh, founding chairman of Luke Hughes & Company from 1990 to 1994, died on 19 March, aged 96.

Architect, artist, designer, manufacturer, co-ordinator of the disparate threads of the UK design world, and latterly founder of the Gordon Russell Museum – Ray was a deeply influential figure in the UK’s furniture industry. He was also among the last of the group of designers involved with the 1951 Festival of Britain and a key figure linking the British Arts & Crafts Movement to post-war modernist design.

Ray Leigh was born in Streatham on 6 June 1928 and was evacuated in 1939 to Morecambe in Lancashire. In 1945, aged 17, he was accepted at the Architectural Association when 75% of the students were ex-servicemen. Ray later wrote, ‘we were rather in a hurry, building a new Britain… and that gave the place a real buzz’. Among his contemporaries were Philip Dowson, Richard Burton, Ted Cullinan and Colin St John Wilson.

His own studies were interrupted by National Service. On his return in 1949, he was offered a holiday job by Dick Russell RDI, an architect and tutor at the Royal College of Art (and brother of, Gordon Russell) to work on the ‘Lion and Unicorn Building’ of the forthcoming 1951 exhibition.

The project transformed Ray’s life, bringing him into contact with some of the most creative artists, designers and architects of the post-war era. Colleagues and friends included Philip Powell & ‘Jacko’ Moya, John Piper, James Stirling, Mary Shand, Terence Conran, and Robin Wade.

Later, he was taken on full-time by Dick Russell, becoming a partner in the firm Russell, Hodgson & Leigh. Major projects included the fit-out of the cruise-liner, SS Oriana, British Museum, Tower of London, Grosvenor House Hotel and the London HQ for Time-Life. Another seminal project was the design of the furniture for the new Coventry Cathedral, designed by Basil Spence and dedicated in April 1962. Dick Russell’s practice designed the congregation chairs, 2000 of which were to be made by Gordon Russell.

In 1967, Ray was appointed Design Director at Gordon Russell Ltd, later becoming its Managing Director, and then Chairman.

His empathy for architecture, its interiors and furnishings, connected seamlessly to the philosophies of the Chipping Campden Movement and the original Arts and Crafts designers and makers. Ray was always unstinting in his encouragement to young designers and makers.

Before and after the sale of Gordon Russell in 1986, Ray continued to give encouragement and time to several professional organisations – such as President of the Guild of Gloucestershire Craftsmen, Mayor of Chipping Campden, a founding trustee of the Crafts Council 1977-1983, Chairman of the Furniture Industry Research Association, Master of Furniture Makers Company 1994, and chairman of the Edward Barnsley Educational Trust. One of his major legacies is the conversion of the former factory’s machine-shop in Broadway into the Gordon Russell Museum, which was opened in 2008 by Sir Terence Conran.

Apart from his support and encouragement to Luke Hughes & Company, there were many other trusts and committees to which he gave advice – always kind, wise and avuncular.

All of us owe him a huge debt.

Luke Hughes wrote the eulogy for his funeral and the obituary for the Daily Telegraph (see: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/04/25/ray-leigh-furniture-festival-britain-obituary/). A full version is also published on our website here: Ray Leigh obituary