three quarter portrait of a man sitting with his hands together in his lap while he is slightly facing the viewer's left. He wears black robes with a gold trim and you can see his white shirt collar slightly. Brown dark backdrop.

Charles Beale, TD, Hon. LLD, MA (Cantab) (1913-89), had close ties with the University: his father and grandfather had both served as Pro-Chancellor. He trained as a solicitor, joining the family practice just before the Second World War, when he went on active service, eventually becoming a Major. After the war he returned to his legal practice in Birmingham, where he spent his career. He was active in the University’s administration and ceremonial, serving as deputy Treasurer, Treasurer, deputy Pro-Chancellor, and from 1979-85, as Pro-Chancellor.

Norman Hepple was president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, 1979-83. The National Portrait Gallery holds his Portrait of Francis Evershed, 1st Baron Evershed. Among other work he designed a poster for the London Underground in 1993, entitled Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon.