Ronald Searle (1920 - 2011)

Ronald Searle

Ronald William Fordham Searle was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School, a fictional all-girls school known for its unruly students and mischievous antics, and for his collaboration with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series. His professional career begins with his documentation of the brutal camp conditions of his period as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in World War II in a series of drawings. Most of these drawings appear in his 1986 book, Ronald Searle: To the Kwai and Back, War Drawings 1939–1945. In the book, Searle also wrote of his experiences as a prisoner. At least one of his drawings is on display at the Changi Museum and Chapel, Singapore, but the majority of his originals are in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, along with the works of other POW artists. Searle produced an extraordinary volume of work during the 1950s, including drawings for Life, Holiday and Punch.[8] His cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, the Sunday Express and the News Chronicle. After moving to Paris in 1961, he worked more on reportage for Life and Holiday and less on cartoons. He also continued to work in a broad range of media and created books (including his well-known cat books), animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals, both for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society. Searle did a considerable amount of designing for the cinema.

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