John Worsley (artist)

John Godfrey Bernard Worsley (16 February 1919 – 3 October 2000) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his naval battle scenes and portraits of high-ranking officers and political figures. One of the very few active service artists of the

Worsley spent his childhood on a coffee farm in Kenya, his family having emigrated from Liverpool just six months after his birth. In 1928 he was sent back to England and was enrolled in St. Winifred's boarding school, from where Worsley won a scholarship to Brighton College, after which he spent three years studying fine art at Goldsmiths' School of Art. After graduating, in 1938, Worsley secured work as a commercial illustrator, mainly working on romance magazines.^[3]

At the start of World War Two, Worsley joined the Royal Navy and spent three years on convoy escort duty in the Atlantic and the North Sea.^[3] During that period Worsley served on HMS Laurentic, HMS Lancaster and HMS Devonshire. Worsley was aboard the Laurentic when it was torpedoed and sunk in November 1940.^[4] Worsley's painting of that incident, based on sketches he made at the time in an open lifeboat, plus his drawings of wartime life at sea gained the attention of Kenneth Clark – the director of War Artists' Advisory Committee –who appointed him as one of the two full-time artists attached to the Commander-in-Chief's staff, Malta.^[1][5]

In 1943, the Navy dispatched Worsley to an island in the north

As a prisoner, Worsley documented camp life with warmth, accuracy, and humour. He also directed his talent to covert pursuits, including the creation of counterfeit documentation, and Albert, an ingenious life-size figurine, crafted from newspaper, a wire frame, and human hair. The figurine had blinking ping-pong ball eyes that were powered by a pendulum made from a sardine tin.[6] For four days, Albert successfully deceived the prison guards, masquerading as an officer during roll-call, while the lieutenant he had replaced made good his escape.^[6] However, the escapee was eventually recaptured, and Albert was hidden for the next escape.^[2]

After the war, Worsley remained under Naval engagement, painting portraits of high-ranking officers for the Admiralty, before securing a commission for the popular children's weekly,

By 1970, Worsley entered the arena of family entertainment, rendering hundreds of large plates for televised adaptations of The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, A Christmas Carol, and The Little Grey Men, later released as large-format prints for children.^[8] During his lifetime, he illustrated over forty books, concluding with a record of his exploits during the Second World War.

Worsley died on 3 October 2000 at the age of 81.^[6]

A collection of his wartime sketches, found in his studio after his death, were displayed by his step-daughter on a special edition of the BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow on 8 September 2019, marking 80 years since the start of World War II.^[9] At that time, they remained in the ownership of his family.^[9]

Selected works

Biography

• Worsley, John; Giggal, Kenneth (1993). John Worsley's War: An Official War Artist in World War II. Shrewsbury: Airlife.
  ISBN 978-1-85310-257-8
  .

• ISBN 978-0545047746
  )
• Guy Morgan (1945), Only Ghosts can Live, Crosby Lockwood & Son
• Stephen MacFarlane (pseud. John Keir Cross) (1946), Detectives in Greasepaint, Peter Lunn
• John Keir Cross (1946), Studio 'J' Investigates, Peter Lunn
• Robert Harling (1946), The Steep Atlantick Stream, Chivers,
  ISBN 978-0855949341
  )
• The Illustrated London News (ed. Sir Bruce Ingram) (1949)
• Eric Romilly (1949), Bleeding from the Roman, Chapman & Hall
• Thomas Cubbin, with an introduction by
  Henry Major Tomlinson (1950), The Wreck of the Serica, Dropmore Press
• Eagle Annual Number 2 (1953) (ed.
  Hulton Press
• Eric Phillips and Alan Stranks (1953), P.C. 49 "Eagle" Strip Cartoon Book, Preview Publications (UK) Ltd
• Alan Stranks (1954), P.C. 49 "Eagle" Strip Cartoon Book Number 2, Andrew Dakers Ltd
• Alan Stranks (1954), On the Beat with P.C. 49, Preview Publications (UK) Ltd
• Alan Stranks (1955), PC 49 Annual, Andrew Dakers Ltd
• Roderick Langmere Haig-Brown (1949), Saltwater Summer, Collins (
  ISBN 978-0001831292
  )
• George Beardmore (1956), Belle of the Ballet's Gala Performance, Hulton Press
• George Beardmore (1957), Belle of the Ballet's Country Holiday, Hulton Press
• George Beardmore (1958), Scandale a la Cour, Dargaud
• George Beardmore (1958), Le Secret De La Ballerine, Dargaud
• Ships (1962),
  Watson-Guptill Publications
• John Gordon Williams (1963), God in the Space Age, Church Information Office
• ISBN 978-0706312911
  )
• ISBN 978-0307147509
  )
• ISBN 978-0861630677
  )
• ISBN 978-0861630660
  )
• ISBN 978-0861630684
  )
• ISBN 978-0861631322
  )
• ISBN 978-0361044028
  )
• ISBN 978-0861630653
  )
• ISBN 978-0361055017
  )

  – (1983), Mr. Toad (Tales from

  ISBN 978-0361056113

  )

  - (1983), Home Sweet Home (Tales from

  ISBN 978-0361056106

  )

  – (1983), Toad's Adventures (Tales from

  ISBN 978-0361056120

  )

  – (1983), The River Bank (Tales from

  ISBN 978-0361056083

  )

  – (1983), The Open Road (Tales from

  ISBN 978-0361056090

  )

  – (1983), The Further Adventures of Toad (Tales from

  ISBN 978-0361056137

  )

• John Worsley (1984), foreword to A Roving Reporter: A Tribute to the Memory of Donald Charles Orbach 1914–1982
• ISBN 978-0861631315
  )
• ISBN 978-0831712983
  )
• Alan Stranks (1990), The Adventures of P.C. 49 (Eagles Classics), Hawk Books (
  ISBN 978-0948248177
  )
• Kenneth Grahame (1990), Mr. Toad (
  ISBN 978-0861634637
  )
• ISBN 978-0957032101
  )

Selected filmography

• The Captive Heart (1946)
• Albert R.N. (1953)
• Anglia Story Series:^[8] The Wind in the Willows (1969)

  – The Winter of Enchantment (1970)

  – A Christmas Carol (1970)

  – Treasure Island (1972)

  – Baldmoney, Sneezwort, Dodder and Cloudberry (The Little Grey Men) (1975)

  – The Whisper of Glocken (1976/ 1980)

See also

• Treasure (magazine)
• Marlag und Milag Nord

References

1. ^
   ISBN 978-1-85310-257-8
   .
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Holland, Steve (12 October 2000). "Obituary: John Worsley". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Obituary: John Worsley". The Daily Telegraph. 7 October 2000.
4. ISBN 9780752489230
   .
5. ^ "War artists archive, John Worsley". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Goldstein, Richard (21 October 2000). "John Worsley, 81, Artist Whose Wartime Creation Outfoxed the Nazis". The New York Times. p. 8. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
7. ^ John Worsley, Illustration Art Gallery, 17 April 2013
8. ^ ^{a b} David Brockman (2003), The Big Three, Transdiffusion
9. ^ ^{a b} "Second World War Special". Antiques Roadshow. Series 42. 8 September 2019. Antiques Roadshow. Retrieved 7 October 2019.

Further reading

• Eagle and Dan Dare website: John Worsley and Eagle Magazine
• Brighton College: notable Old Brightonians
• Illustration Art Gallery, 17 April 2013

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Worsley.

23 artworks by or after John Worsley at the Art UK site

• Royal Museums Greenwich
• IMDB