Eileen Evans (Miss)

Eileen Evans (Miss) joined the Photographic Division of the Ministry of Information, as a filing clerk. In 1940 she was noticed by ‘Gibbs-Smith who very sensibly noticed that as an artist she was not being used to the best advantage on that particular type of work’, who put her in touch with Embleton, Edwin. She was transferred to the Studio, to work under Reginald Mount. In early 1943 Embleton called for her grade to be improved to Junior Assistant Specialist (JAS), as Mount’s ‘experience and flair for getting the best out of her has resulted in her developing into a really first-rate designer, and the value of the work she produces is miles above the grade she is in’.Evans worked with Mount, Reginald at the MOI, and they continued to work together post-war. Closely associated with the Central Office of Information (COI, which succeeded the MOI) in the 1950s and 1960s, the Mount/Evans Studio produced information graphics and public service notices for a wide variety of government agencies. Papers from c.1953 to 1981, covering joint graphic design work with Reginald Mount, are held at NAL.

Information collated from: PRO INF 1/86, ‘Memo from Embleton to Vaughan and Judd’, ‘Re-organisation of the Ministry of Information: General Production Division’, January 25 1943; Rennies Vintage Posters, ‘Rennies- Posters of Reginald Mount and Eileen Evans’, http://www.rennart.co.uk/mountevans.html, accessed August 28 2003; National Art Library, ‘AAD Holdings’, http://www.nal.vam.ac.uk/aad/aadalpha.html, accessed August 28 2003

“A Great Degree of Value”

As you may remember, in October this year, I partook in a panel on “Why I study history?”, so, I was really interested to see the following story in History Today (a very readable magazine):

“John Tosh argues that historians should find ways to teach undergraduates the practical applications of their uniquely insightful discipline.

How many history graduates leave university believing that their hard-earned knowledge can be put to practical use? Those entering the teaching profession or the heritage industries will need little persuading. But what about history graduates who enter business or the public service, or who undertake training for other professions? They may be persuaded by the argument that history develops analytical and communication skills. But other disciplines make the same claim with equal validity. A degree in history may not be a dead end, but for very many students it leads nowhere beyond a leisure interest.

Students can hardly be blamed for underestimating the relevance of their discipline. For they get little encouragement from those who should know better. The reluctance of most academic historians to advocate the practical application of their discipline results in cohorts of students who have little or no idea of the value of the subject. Periodically government ministers and spokespeople for the profession engage in acrimonious argument about the purposes served by the study of history. But one seldom hears a ringing endorsement of the proposition that history provides much of the intellectual equipment needed by the well-informed, critically aware citizen. To know that the past can illuminate the contours of the present is to be better equipped to make intelligent judgments about critical public issues.

At present the structure of the university curriculum makes little allowance for perspectives of this kind. Most students begin their studies with a module on the nature of the discipline, which usually gives some attention to the social role of historical knowledge. This is certainly an advance on the situation 50 years ago when history was taught in an unreflexive manner. But for most students, evaluating the possible applications of historical knowledge stops there. They are likely to encounter E.H. Carr’s definition of history as ‘an unending dialogue between past and present’, but to apply this to their understanding of the past rather than the present.

The time-honoured climax of the history degree is the ‘special subject’ in which any contemporary resonance is completely submerged by immersion in the primary sources; the dissertation involves more of the same. On some courses students may have the opportunity to study the impact of past masters of the craft on their contemporaries (Gibbon and Macaulay being prime candidates), but they are seldom encouraged to make a comparable evaluation of the major historians at work today.

My proposal is that, in order to maximise the practical utility of the subject, university teachers should make a space in which we can discuss with our finalists the bearing which their studies may have on their engagement as citizens. Studying history for three years imparts not only a knowledge of particular periods and places in the past, but the ability to think historically: to take the measure of the gulf between past and present, to recognise trajectories whose direction and dynamic may not be immediately obvious and to distinguish between what is enduring and what is transient in our present circumstances. What better preparation for life beyond university than a recognition that these principles illumine the present as well as the past?

Teachers and students of history will always feel more at ease dealing in concrete cases rather than generalisations. We now have a major resource of such concrete cases in the History and Policy website (www.historyandpolicy.org), where the application of historical research to current politics is demonstrated across the spectrum of social, economic and foreign policy. Examination questions could reflect this emphasis.

The student specialising in international relations might tackle the question: ‘Why have makers of foreign policy so often resorted to historical analogy in order to understand the present?’Students more drawn to social history might be asked to ‘evaluate the view that key features of the British welfare state today can only be understood in the light of the pre-20th century Poor Law’. Government and business leaders continue to judge academic subjects by their ability to deliver ‘transferable skills’, by which they usually mean the generic skills of analysis and communication. The fallacy lies in that slippage from ‘transferable’ to ‘generic’. Why is the argument confined to skills which are common to most disciplines? Just as valuable are those skills which are largely the property of one discipline. The next time a government minister demands that universities should focus on transferable skills, we should gently point out that historical perspective is a transferable skill; it is essential to the informed citizen and it is more carefully cultivated in university history departments than anywhere else. Our graduates should know this too. Potentially they are in a privileged position ‘to test modern experiment by historical experience’( as A.F. Pollard put it) and to contribute their insights to public debate.

John Tosh is Professor of History at Roehampton University, London. The fifth edition of his book, The Pursuit of History, is published by Pearson Education this month.”

R.W.Elgar (Mr)

Elgar designed savings posters in the Second World War, and was responsible for the panels at the base of Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square, during Warships Weeks. He was also responsible for displays in early 1944 on Nelson’s Column. His poster designs for the ‘Salute the Soldier’ campaign were chosen because they were ‘not too warlike’.

Information collated from: Anonymous, ‘Services’ Savings Poster’, Advertiser’s Weekly, Vol. 118, No. 1,535, October 22 1942, p.70; Anonymous, ‘Salute the Soldier Posters “Best Yet”‘, Advertiser’s Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 1,599, January 13 1944, p.53

Roland Davies (b.1904; d.1993)

Roland Davies first studied to be a lithographer, but became an illustrator instead, starting with cinema posters and illustrations for the magazines Autocar and Motor Cycle. He began working for Modern Boy in 1928, where he drew illustrations and covers, making his debut in comics (for which he was best known) in March 1932 with ‘Come on, Steve!’. This cartoon appeared in the Sunday Express, and was such a success that Davies founded a studio in 1936 to make an animated version of it.Roland Davies merits mention in several dictionaries and encyclopaedias, particularly related to his comic work. He drew series like ‘Whoopee Hank’ and ‘Contrary Mary’ for The Beano. He designed comics in the realistic genre, such as ‘Sexton Black’, ‘Dixon of Dock Green’, ‘Norma and Henry Bones’ and ‘Red Ray the Space Racer’. From 1950 to 1959 he illustrated ‘Jill Crusoë’ in School Friend, aimed at a female audience. Davies drew ‘Pete Madden’ in Knockout and a version of ‘Beetle Bailey’ for TV Comic. In 1970, Roland Davies left the comics field and devoted his attention to painting, although he had previously done work in this field. In 1944 he illustrated a realistic watercolour image for Sphere Magazine of British Thunderbolts attacking German columns.

Information collated from: Lambiek Studio, ‘Roland Davies’, http://www.lambiek.net/davies_roland.htm, last updated November 6 2002, accessed October 3 2003; Michigan State University Libraries, ‘Index to Comic Art Collection: “Davie” to “Davis, Howard”‘, http://www.lib.msu.edu/comics/rri/drri/davie.htm, accessed October 3 2003; Killin Gallery, ‘Killin Gallery – Paintings’, http://www.killingallery.com/paintings.htm, accessed October 3 2003. See also Steve Holland, ‘The Lesser Known Art of Roland Davies’, http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2009/04/lesser-known-art-of-roland-davies.html, accessed December 16 2009

J.H.Dowd

J H Dowd was an illustrator, including two books, People of Importance and Important People, which are collections of sketches of his children from babyhood to pre-teens.

Information taken from: E-mail from Penny Copinger Binns, July 2005

Leonard Cusden

Leonard Cusden was ‘engaged during the war in the design of propaganda posters and as Art Advisor to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’ (ROSPA), and post war on designing accident prevention posters. He worked with H.G. Winbolt, producing sixty to seventy posters a year for ROSPA, for distribution to factories. Designs tended to originate as ‘mind pictures or actual happenings’ rather than an illustrated thought. He also hired other artists for poster design, and worked with Tom Eckersley

Information collated from: Cusden, L., ‘Design of the Poster’, Art and Industry, Vol. 51, No. 304, October 1951, pp.142-143; Anonymous, ‘Surely these Posters Must Prevent Accidents?’ Advertiser’s Weekly, Vol. 127, No. 1,660, March 15 1945, p.378; Brighton School of Art and Design, ‘Archive Tom Eckersley’,http://www.adh.brighton.ac.uk/schoolofdesign/MA.COURSE/01/LIAEckersley.html, accessed October 3 2003.

Terence Cuneo (b.1907; d.1996)

Terence Cuneo was born in London, the son of Cyrus and Nell Cuneo, artists who met whilst studying with Whistler in Paris. Cuneo studied at the Chelsea Polytechnic from 1924 to 1927 before working as an illustrator for magazines, books and periodicals (like his father). In 1936 Cuneo started working in oils, whilst continuing with his illustration work. During the war he worked for the War Artists Advisory Committee providing illustrations of aircraft factories and wartime events. Cuneo was personally commissioned to do work for the MOI by Embleton, Edwin. Cuneo was a member of the London Sketch Club in the 1940s, and was an ‘establishment artist for much of the latter half of the twentieth century’. He painted portraits, including the Coronation of 1953, and was an artist to industry, ‘renowned for his work portraying mines, dams, industrial processes, but above all his railway scenes’.Post-war Cuneo was commissioned to produce a series of railway posters; locomotive, track, locomotive works and bridges, a subject with which Cuneo was fascinated, and work for which he became renowned. Commissioned to portray the Coronation in 1953, his name was brought before a world-wide public, receiving many more commissions for portraits, depictions of industry, regimental commissions and battle scenes. On his own account, Cuneo also covered a wide range of subjects, including ‘big game in Africa, landscapes and his famous “mouse paintings”‘, from which his trademark, a small mouse, developed.

His works can be found in museums in: London, H.M. The Queen Moth, Guildhall Art Gallery, H.M. The Queen and the Royal Institution. The family of Terence Cuneo are also looking to establish an archive of his work, covering railway, military and equestrian art, including work commissioned by the Queen.

See

• Cuneo, Terence Mouse and His Master: Life and Works of Terence Cuneo 1977
• Official Website; Cuneo Society
• Terence Cuneo on Wikipedia.

Information collated from: The Guild of Railway Artists, ‘Railway Art Galley: Terence Cuneo Biography’,http://www.railart.co.uk/gallery/cuneo.html, Access 28 August 2003; Questionnaire submitted by Royall, K. to Embleton, E., Royall, K., ‘Posters of the Second World War: The Fourth Arm of British Defence’, Unpublished M.A., University of Westminster, 1991, p.123; Farman, J., ‘galleryonthegreen.co.uk’,http://www.galleryonthegreen.co.uk/mainfiles/sketch/history.htm, accessed October 03 2003; Terence Cuneo Family, ‘About Terence Cuneo’, http://www.terencecuneo.co.uk/htm/about_tc.htm, accessed August 28 2003

Waterloo: Ever noticed this statue?

Statue of Terence Cuneo by Philip Jackson at Waterloo Station, London.

Dudley S. Cowes

Dudley S Cowes was a book illustrator, including ‘Cinderella Bibliography’.

Information collated from: Peck, R.A., ‘Cinderella Bibliography’, http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/cin3.htm, accessed August 28 2003.

John Clark

Clark was an artist and Works Relations Officer at a Royal Ordnance Factory working for the Ministry of Supply who designed ‘But is the Machine Turned Off?’. Not a professional advertising man, he was a bank clerk ‘who found himself drafted into the industry like so many others with no previous experience of factory work’.

Information collated from: Shaw, C.K., ‘Works Relations’, Advertiser’s Weekly, Vol. 121, No. 1,583, September 23 1943, p.378.

Cosmo Clark (b.1897; d.1967)

‘The distinguished British artist’ John Cosmo Clark published his war correspondence from the First World War, when he was involved in the trial of a British soldier which ended with the latter’s execution. Captain Clark was the ‘prisoner’s friend’ who represented Stevenson who faced court martial. ‘Clark later became a distinguished artist but he was wholly unqualified’. His sketches ‘remind us of war’s humanity: shell-shocked faces, the wounded on stretchers, the boredom of waiting, the joys of a cigarette, the generosity of townspeople’. Cosmo Clark was a Royal Academician, married to Jean Clark. Both were members of the New English Art Club Watercolour Society. Both were prolific artists, with Cosmo finding time to make sketches whilst soldiering in France in the First World War. Several paintings of both of them were to be sold in aid of The Bishop’s Lent Call in 2003. ‘Cosmo Clark painted a portrait of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and achieved his greatest success with a series of London pub paintings, during’ the Second World War.

See

• Clark, Cosmo, The Tin Trunk – Letters and Drawings 1914-1918, 2000
• Bankside Gallery, Retrospective Exhibition, Cosmo Clark 1897-1967, Jean Clark, 1902, 1983

Information collated from: Putkowski, J., ‘Shot at Dawn: Pte. Stevenson & Captain Cosmo Clark’,http://www.ku.edu/carrie/archives/wwi-1/2001/01/msg00123.html, written January 16 2001, accessed October 3 2003; Reviewer from Suffolk, UK, ‘Tin Trunk , The Letters and Drawings 1914-1918,http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0953979903/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/026…, accessed October 3 2003; Diocese of Southwark, ‘The Bridge, March 2003 – The Bishop’s Lent Call 2003′, http://www.dswark.org/bridge/0303/page11.htm, accessed October 3 2003; Thistlefineart.com, ‘Clark, John Cosmo – oil on canvas’, http://www.thistlefineart.com/Clark.htm, accessed October 3 2003.