British painter, born in Chelmsford. After war service (during which he was awarded the MC) he studied in London at the Regent Street Polytechnic, 1948, and the *Royal College of Art, 1948–52. His contemporaries at the RCA included Derrick *Greaves and Jack *Smith, and with these two and John *Bratby he became one of the leading representatives of the *Kitchen Sink School in the 1950s. However, Middleditch was more interested in nature than in *Social Realism (landscapes and flowers are his favourite subjects) and in the 1960s his work became increasingly abstract without completely abandoning subject-matter. His dealer Helen *Lessore recalled that he never talked of his wartime experiences and deduced from this that the memory of them lay behind all he did.