In the Frame: Conserving Thelwell

In November 2023, the Museum successfully applied to the Tru Vue® Conservation & Exhibition Grant Scheme. Our proposal centred on the conservation and framing of a watercolour by the artist Norman Thelwell.

Watercolour of a soldier sitting with a leg crossed over in a tent, smoking a pipe. Folds visible in the paper.

The watercolour by Thelwell at the start of the conservation process. 2023.55.1.

Who was Norman Thelwell?

Norman Thelwell was a famous cartoonist, most well-known for his caricatures of young girls and their fat ponies. Before his art career, however, he served with REME in the Second World War.

He was called up for service in 1941 at the age of 18 and initially joined as a Private in 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. Prior to the training for D-Day, Thelwell was selected to undertake a wireless course near Nottingham. Here he discovered evening art classes at the Nottingham School of Art, enrolled and coincidentally met a student who later became his wife. Owing to his success on the wireless course, he was asked to transfer to REME for training as a Radio Mechanic.

Following a one-month course at No. 2 Radio Mechanics School at Gopshall Hall at Twycross, he was posted to 8 Central Workshop REME at Chilwell, as a Radio Mechanic.

By 7 July 1945, he was posted to the Mobilisation Centre REME and sent to India. On 1 August 1945, he disembarked in Bombay and became a Sergeant in the Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (now the Indian Army Corps of EME). His posting in India was to the Directorate of Mechanical Engineering, part of GHQ India Command at New Delhi. Thelwell soon became known for producing cartoons for the Victory magazine, the ‘weekly for India Command’.

In early 1946, the Director of Mechanical Engineering IEME (Major General Duguid CB MBE) directed the production of an IEME Journal to raise money for the Funds of the IEME Corps Association. This would be used for the benefit of British and Indian members of the Corps who had suffered as a result of the war. The editorial team was:

  • Lieutenant Colonel J F Rice MBE REME – Editor
  • Major D Richards IEME – Production and Business Manager
  • Sergeant D G Lucy IEME – Assistant Editor
  • Sergeant N Thelwell IEME – Art Editor
  • Sergeant A Orton IEME – Advertisement Lay-out

Thelwell’s work was used heavily throughout the first issue of the Journal. All this gave him a good grounding in commercial art and his talents were soon spotted and he started producing joke cartoons for the News Review.

After his service with REME, Thelwell went to Liverpool College of Art to do a 5-year teaching degree. He completed the course in only 3 years and joined the staff of Wolverhampton College of Art. His cartoons featured in magazines including London Opinion, Everybody’s Weekly and then, in 1952, Punch. Over the next 25 years he produced 1,500 cartoons for the magazine, 60 of which appeared as front covers.

Punch published Thelwell’s first pony cartoon in 1953 and it immediately struck a chord with readers. He revealed in his autobiography Wrestling with a Pencil (1986) that he was inspired by two ponies in a paddock close to his Staffordshire home:

“They were small, round, fat and of a very uncertain temper!”

When the News Chronicle offered him a position as a cartoonist in 1956, he left teaching and became a freelance artist. He produced 34 books focussing on subjects as diverse as children, house-hunting, driving, gardening, fishing, stately homes, sailing, cats, dogs and countryside.

Conserving an early Thelwell

The watercolour in our collection is a portrait of Staff Sergeant (SSgt) P C Cummins, who served alongside Thelwell in India. SSgt Cummins’ son donated the watercolour to the Museum in June 2023.

The Museum’s chosen conservator, Sara Louise Vaile, who is a registered member of The Institute of Conservation and based in Birmingham, conducted a condition report and carried out the conservation work.

The work involved cleaning and repair, using smoke sponges, brushes, scalpel, bone folder, methyl cellulose adhesive and pastel crayons. The latter were used to cover up localised foxing/rust marks and the exposed area of paper where old adhesive was sited. The watercolour was then carefully pressed between blotting paper, under glass and weights.

Watercolour of a soldier sitting with a leg crossed over in a tent, smoking a pipe. Laid on top of white card with brushes and other tools laid out next to it.

The watercolour during the conservation process, including all tools used.

Glass plates sat on top of a piece of paper with weighted blocks in between the plates.

The watercolour during the pressing and blotting process.

She then used the conservation-standard glass supplied as part of the Tru Vue® scheme to ensure the watercolour can be enjoyed by the Museum’s visitors for many years into the future.

The conserved watercolour of SSgt Cummins by Norman Thelwell is now on display in our Conference Room.

A monotone watercolour on brown paper of a solder smoking a pipe, mounted on white card and framed, on a wall.

The watercolour following the conservation process, mounted and framed, on display.

Much of the information in this article was taken from ‘Thelwell – From REME Sergeant to Artist and Cartoonist!’ by Colonel (Retd) Mike Sibbons, former Corps Archivist, published in June 2014 and in From the Archives. The original article contains more detail than has been included here.

Images of conservation reproduced with thanks to Sara Louise Vaile.

Logos of ICON and Tru Vue.

With thanks to Tru Vue® and the Institute of Conservation for their financial support via the Conservation & Exhibition Grant Scheme and to Sara Louise Vaile for carrying out the conservation work.

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