Martin Henry Hugh Aitchison (21 November 1919 – 22 October 2016) was an illustrator for the ''Eagle'' comic from 1952 to 1963, and then one of the main

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

s for

Ladybird Books Ladybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books. It is an imprint of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary o ...

from 1963 to 1990. Aitchison was born in

Kings Norton Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Worcestershire, it was also a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward within the Government of Birmingham, Engl ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

(now part of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

). He was educated at

Ellesmere College (''Striving for one's country'') , established = 1879 , song = ''Jerusalem'' , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding schoolDay School , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, leaving aged 15 to attend the Birmingham School of Art and then

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

. He married fellow art student Dorothy Self. He exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1939. He was deaf, excluding him from active service in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but he worked for

Vickers Aircraft Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

as a technical illustrator. He produced drawings for the

bouncing bomb A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-deter ...

designed by Barnes Wallis for the Dam Busters air raid. He became a freelance commercial artist after the war, producing drawings for a range of magazines. His earliest work was for

Hulton Press Sir Edward George Warris Hulton (29 November 1906 – 8 October 1988) was a British magazine publisher and writer. Early life Hulton was born to Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet, a newspaper publisher and racehorse owner originally from Mancheste ...

' '' Lilliput'' magazine. He drew for ''

Girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...

'', filling in for Ray Bailey on "Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew", and illustrating "Flick and the Vanishing New Girl" in the first ''Girl'' annual. He began to work for the ''Eagle'' in 1952, drawing the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

strip "

Luck of the Legion ''Luck of the Legion'' was a British adventure comics series, published in the magazine ''Eagle (comic), Eagle'', written by Geoffrey Bond and illustrated by Martin Aitchison. It ran from 1952 to 1961. The series followed the exploits of the Fre ...

", written by

Geoffrey Bond Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to: People * Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name * Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the ...

, for nearly ten years, including spin-off strips in ''ABC Film Review'' in 1952. He also drew spy series "Danger Unlimited" and adaptations of

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's '' The Lost World'' and C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower stories for the ''Eagle'', and "Arty and Crafty", written by Geoffrey Bond, for ''Eagle'''s junior companion paper ''

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...

''. His work for comics displayed his talents in an exuberant and creative medium, working mainly from imagination. He joined Ladybird Books in 1963, and joined

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 ...

in illustrating many titles in its new

Key Words Reading Scheme The Key Words Reading Scheme is a series of 36 English language early readers children's books, published by the British publishing company, Ladybird Books. The series are also often referred to as Peter and Jane, the names of the main charact ...

books, also known as

Peter and Jane Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, which were used to teach so many British children to read. The consistency, naturalistic style and attention to detail of the artist made him a favourite with the prolific British publisher and over a period of a quarter of a century, he illustrated at least 100 different titles. Martin Aitchison was not the only artist to make the switch from ''The Eagle'' to Ladybird;

Frank Hampson Frank Hampson (21 December 1918 – 8 July 1985) was a British illustrator. He is best known as the creator and artist of Dan Dare and other characters in the boys' comic, the ''Eagle'', to which he contributed from 1950 to 1961. Biogra ...

and also followed the same path. He left Ladybird in 1987, and retired - apart from drawing a new comic strip, "Justin Tyme - ye Hapless Highwayman", written by Geoffrey Bond, and later his son Jim, for the fanzine ''Eagle Times'' from 1998 to 2004. He died on 22 October 2016 at the age of 96.Martin Aitchison
/ref>

Comics bibliography

*" Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew", ''

'' *"Flick and the Vanishing New Girl, ''Girl Annual'' No 1 *"

" written by

, ''

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

'' Vol 3 No 5 – Vol 12 No 37, ''Eagle Annual'' No 3-10 (1952-1961) *"Danger Unlimited", ''Eagle'' Vol 12 No 33 – Vol 13 No 9 *"The Lost World", ''Eagle'' Vol 13 No 10 – Vol 13 No 29 *"Hornblower R. N.", ''Eagle Vol 13 No 28 – Vol 14 No 9 *"Warrior with Tin Legs", ''Eagle Annual'' No 11 (1962) *"Justin Tyme - Ye Hapless Highwayman", ''Eagle Times'' Vol 11 No 4 (Winter 1998) - Vol 17 No 1 (Spring 2004)

References

Biography
Eagle Times, 8 January 2008

Eagle Times, 31 December 2009

External links

Official website

Martin Aitchison remembered
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitchison, Martin 1919 births 2016 deaths British comics artists British illustrators Deaf artists People educated at Ellesmere College English deaf people Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art