Painter and illustrator, teacher, born in London, the family moving to Faversham, Kent after being bombed out during World War II. He studied at Canterbury College of Art, 1954–7, and Royal Academy Schools 1959–62. In 1958 he had met the artist John Ward and from leaving the Royal Academy Schools until 1969 Sergeant taught at Canterbury College of Art and Dover and Folkestone Schools of Art, carrying out his own commissioned work while occasionally assisting Ward. Among books he illustrated were Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Richard Church’s Portrait of Canterbury. In 1981, inspired by the exhibition Interiors at Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, he concentrated for two years on commissions for interiors, including Castle Coole, Stowell Park and Deene Park, before deciding on a major change in routine, moving two Wales in 1983, where he settled at Rhulen, Builth Wells, Powys.