The son of a railwayman, Ronald Searle was born in Cambridge on 3 March 1920, and educated in the town at the Boys' Central School. He started work as a solicitor's clerk, and then joined the hire purchase department of the co-operative Society, studying in the evenings and later full-time at the Cambridge Daily News from the age of fifteen.
Enlisting in the Royal Engineers at the outbreak of the Second World War, he spent time in Kirkcudbright, where he encountered evacuees from St. Trinian's, a progressive girls' school situated in Edinburgh. This resulted in his first cartoon for Lilliput, published in October 1941, and later developed into one of his most famous creations, through a series of books and their cinematic spin-offs. Remarkably, he survived the horrific experiences of the Changi Camp, Singapore as a Japanese prisoner-of-war and managed to produce a visual record of life in a prison camp.
On his return to England in 1945, he exhibited the surviving pictures at the Cambridge School of Art, and published Forty Drawings. The exhibition and volume together established his reputation as one of Britain's most powerful draughtsmen, and led to several opportunities to record the atmosphere of post-war Europe. He contributed to Punch and these drawings crystallised in, The Female Approach (1949). Throughout the fifties, he produced a large variety of illustrations, which together seemed present a guide to life in Britain in the 1950's.
Such was his success that his rejection of family and country in a move to Paris in 1961 came as a great surprise. However, it offered a fresh start, resulting in several solo shows, including a major exhibitions at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the Berlin-Dahlem Museum and the Wilhelm-Busch-Museum, Hanover. He also reached a new audience with his contributions to film and television, most notably The Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965).
Note: Searle did so many works that I want to post here, that I will post them in two separate series: 1940-1960, and at a later date: 1961-2007.
For a more detailed biography see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 & 2 also.
This is part 3 of a 13-part series on the works of Ronald Searle, dated 1940-1960:
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| 1944 "Lord have mercy upon us" watercolour 16.1 x 11.4 cm Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronalad Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944/45 "Oh, Mr. Marx, I think your 'Das Kapital' is wonderful" The Tatler 26 December 1945 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronalad Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944 The Inconstant Moon by Noel Langley published by Arthur Barker cover and illustrations by Ronald Searle |
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| 1944 The Inconstant Moon by Noel Langley published by Arthur Barker illustration by Ronald Searle |
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| 1944 The Inconstant Moon by Noel Langley published by Arthur Barker illustration by Ronald Searle |
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| 1944 The Inconstant Moon by Noel Langley published by Arthur Barker illustration by Ronald Searle |
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| 1944-45 "- and this is Mr. Eccleshave - he wants a bloody Revolution" published in the London Opinion September 1949 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronalad Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "And now, 47 Nocturnes, composed by myself." London Opiniom October 1946 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronalad Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "Bump the green one, Perkins" The Tatler July 1946 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronalad Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "Don't look now, Clancy, but I think there is something wrong with your bearskin." published in Lilliput Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "Don't look now, Clancy, but I think there is something wrong with your bearskin." Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "Get me the zoo, please, Miss Winterton." The Tatler & Bystander January 9 1946 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "Half a pound of arsenic, a pint of Prussia acid and a handful of ground glass, please." Men Only, February 1946 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "Quick! What do I say now? – Veni, Vidi something" The Taler 19 December 1945 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 Come along now. Be a good boy and eat your nice missionary. Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "My deah, aaabstracts ALWAYS make me GIGGLE." Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944-45 "My deah, aaabstracts ALWAYS make me GIGGLE." 1947 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1944 'Sorry sir, no smoking in the museum.' |
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| 1945 'Sorry Madam, no smoking in the museum' |
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| 1945 "My name is Tod, Sir – Quite a coincidence isn't it?" The Tatler & Bystander 5 December 1945 Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1946 "... Then the fairy whipped out her Thompson sub machine gun and ripped the elf in half a blazing hail of lead" Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1946 At the Theatre: "So Sorry…" |
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| 1946 At the Theatre: The Stalls |
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| 1946 from Lilliput magazine |
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| 1947 Tales of the Supernatural cover by Ronald Searle |
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| 1948 With My Little Eye by Roy Fuller cover by Ronald Searle |
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| 1949 Three Years At The Opera by Patrick Campbell From Lilliput |
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| 1950 A Short Trot with a Cultured Mind by Patrick Campbell published by The Falcon Press, London Front Cover |
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| 1950 A Short Trot with a Cultured Mind by Patrick Campbell published by The Falcon Press, London Title Page |
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| 1950 An Irishman's Diary by Patrick Campbell Front Cover |
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| 1950 An Irishman's Diary by Patrick Campbell |
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| 1950 Cyclists |
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| 1950 Lilliput magazine September issue |
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| 1950 Radio Times cover January 22-28 |
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| 1950 The Sure Thing by Merle Miller cover by Ronald Searle |
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| 1950-60 By Rocking Chair Across Sweden 50.7 x 38.1 cm Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst © The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1950s London Fog coat advertisement Portrait of a Leading Lady |
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| 1951 "My dear, if you don’t haggle they think you’re a tourist" Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst ©The Ronald Searle Cultural Trust |
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| 1951 Adam and Eve in America by Luigi Olivero published by Macdonald cover by Ronald Searle |
1946 Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais by Ronald Searle published in France by Editions Montbrun:
Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais by Ronald Searle
published in France by Editions Montbrun
"Adam Zero" 
"Adam Zero"
Death comes to Adam Zero
"The Rake's Progress"
Scene VI - The Mad House
"Ballerina"
1949 This England 1946–1949 published by Turnstile Press, London:
1949 This England 1946–1949
Front Cover
Frontispiece 
Indigenous 
Prime Ectoplasm 
Change of Habit 
Cue for Sympathy 
Last Race
1950 Paris Sketchbook by Ronald Searle and Kaye Webb:
Front Cover
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