16 Facts About Victor Ambrus

Victor Ambrus was a patron of the Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors up until its merger with the Institute for Archaeologists in 2011.

Victor Ambrus was born on 19 August 1935 in Budapest, Hungary.

Victor Ambrus continued to live in the capital, but spent many childhood holidays in the country, where he learnt to draw horses.

Victor Ambrus received his secondary education at the St Imre Cistercian College, Budapest, before going on to study at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts for three years, where he was given a thorough grounding in drawing, anatomy and print-making.

From Blackbushe Airport and Crookham army camp, speaking no English, Victor Ambrus presented himself at Farnham Art School, and was taken on, not to follow any particular course but to work at his drawing.

Victor Ambrus had already concentrated largely on engraving and lithography which, as he says, was an excellent training for line illustration.

Victor Ambrus won a Gulbenkian scholarship to study printmaking and illustration there for three years.

Victor Ambrus lectured from 1963 to 1985 at Farnham, Guildford and Epsom Colleges of Art.

Victor Ambrus had a long career working for the Oxford University Press.

Victor Ambrus worked as the artist on the television series about archaeology, Time Team.

Victor Ambrus designed six sets of historical stamps for the Jersey Post Office and one for the Royal Mail.

In 1958, while at the Royal College, Ambrus married fellow student Glenys R Chapman.

Victor Ambrus's wife had a career as an illustrator of children's books.

Victor Ambrus twice received the Kate Greenaway Medal from the British Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject: the 1965 Medal for The Three Poor Tailors and the 1975 for Mishka and Horses in Battle.

All three books were both written and illustrated by Victor Ambrus and published by Oxford.

Victor Ambrus was a commended runner up for three Medals: 1963 for both The Royal Navy by Peter Dawlish and A Time of Trial by Hester Burton; 1964 for work in general; and 1971 for The Sultan's Bath, written by himself.