1. Ronald Searle is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and for his collaboration with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series.
20 Facts About Ronald Searle
1. 2.
Ronald Searle started drawing at the age of five and left school at the age of 15.
3.
Ronald Searle trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology for two years.
4.
Ronald Searle spent the rest of the war as prisoner, first in Changi Prison and then in the Kwai jungle, working on the Siam-Burma Death Railway.
5.
Ronald Searle contracted both beriberi and malaria during his incarceration, which included numerous beatings, and his weight dropped to less than 40 kilograms.
6.
Ronald Searle was liberated in late 1945 with the final defeat of the Japanese.
7.
Ronald Searle married the journalist Kaye Webb in 1947; they had twins, Kate and Johnny.
8.
In 1961, Ronald Searle moved to Paris, leaving his family; the marriage ended in divorce in 1967.
9.
In 2002, additional war drawings by Ronald Searle were discovered in Melbourne, Australia.
10.
Ronald Searle produced an extraordinary volume of work during the 1950s, including drawings for Life, Holiday and Punch.
11.
Ronald Searle's cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, the Sunday Express and the News Chronicle.
12.
Ronald Searle compiled more St Trinian's books, which were based on his sister's school and other girls' schools in Cambridge.
13.
Ronald Searle collaborated with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth books, and with Alex Atkinson on travel books.
14.
Ronald Searle continued to work in a broad range of media and created books, animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals, both for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society.
15.
Ronald Searle designed the 1992 delegates medal for the FIDEM XXIII Congress London.
16.
Ronald Searle received much recognition for his work, especially in America, including the National Cartoonists Society's Advertising and Illustration Award in 1959 and 1965, the Reuben Award in 1960, their Illustration Award in 1980 and their Advertising Award in 1986 and 1987.
17.
Ronald Searle was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004.
18.
Across the Atlantic, Searle was an admiring friend of, and admired by, the satirical humorist S J Perelman.
19.
Ronald Searle's work has had a great deal of influence, particularly on American cartoonists, including Edward Gorey, Pat Oliphant, Matt Groening, Hilary Knight, and the animators of Disney's 101 Dalmatians.
20.
Ronald Searle was an early influence on John Lennon's drawing style which featured in the books In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.