Harry Wingfield

John Henry (Harry) Wingfield (4 December 1910 - 5 March 2002) was an English illustrator, best known for his drawings that illustrated the Ladybird Books Key Words Reading Scheme (also known as "Peter and Jane") in the 1960s through to the 1980s, which sold over 80 million copies worldwide.

Wingfield was born in Denby, near Derby, where his father worked at a glass factory. He grew up in Manchester and Derbyshire. Hoping to become an engineer, he failed to obtain an apprenticeship to Rolls Royce due to his stammer, he started his first job, in an advertising agency in Derby, aged 16, and then worked in Walsall and Birmingham. He took evening classes in drawing, where he met his wife, Ethel. He served in the RAF in the Second World War, and began working for Ladybird in the 1950s.

His clean line drawings, along with those of Martin Aitchison, provided strong images to accompany the simple text devised by William Murray. Wingfield's wife Ethel, as an expert in early learning, was a significant collaboartor. His best-known work accompanied books in the Key Words Reading Scheme brought out by Ladybird as competition to the American Janet and John books. They conformed to stereotypes, with neat, obedient children; Peter helping Daddy with the car or in the garden, and Jane helping Mummy in the kitchen. They featured images initially based on photography of white families on new council estates of the period, a market they targeted with phenomenal success.

Within a few years, Wingfield's images were looking out of date, and he modernised them in the 1970s. The children became scruffier, and the domestic settings changed, though the books never fully reflected the social changes of the period.

Wingfield remained a freelancer for most of his life and never took out a private pension. In 1989, Ladybird returned to him a catalogue of around 600 pictures, 400 of which he was able to sell. He lived modestly, and after retirement continued to live in the semi-detached house in Walsall where he had spent his working life as an artist.

After his death, exhibitions of Wingfield's pictures were held in Walsall in 2002 and 2003. His works, along with the books, have become highly collectable.

References

* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,672740,00.html Harry Wingfield: Children's book illustrator whose wholesome pictures of Peter and Jane helped millions learn to read ] , Julia Eccleshare, "The Guardian", 23 March 2002
* Harry Wingfield - Obituary, "The Times", London, 15 March, 2002
* [http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/ladybird/harry_wingfield_interview.php Interview transcript] , 14 November 2001