Clifford Webb

Who was Clifford Webb?

Clifford Webb was an English artist, illustrator and author: RBA 1936, RE 1948.

He was apprenticed as a lithographer, but served in the British Army during World War I and then studied at the Westminster School of Art. He fought at Mons, Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. He was wounded four times and mentioned in despatches. Between 1917-1919, he served as a captain in the Indian Army.

From 1919-1922, he studied at the Westminster School of Art under Walter Bayes and Bernard Meninsky and then from 1923-26 he was a part-time lecturer at Central School of Art in Birmingham.

He specialised in animal drawings, and also produced the illustrations for the first two books of the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome; initially for the second edition of Swallows and Amazons. Webb also illustrated the second book, Swallowdale. Ransome then illustrated Peter Duck, the third and all subsequent books himself, and in 1938 Ransome produced illustrations for later editions of Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale replacing Webb's draweings.