Walter E. Spradberry
English, 1889-1969
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Walter Ernest Spradbery was a prolific designer, painter and poet.
Born in East Dulwich, as a child Spradbery moved to Walthamstow and studied at the Walthamstow School of Art where he later taught. A fervent pacifist, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War and recorded in watercolour some of the distressing war scenes he witnessed. After the Second World War, he became instrumental in the opening of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow in 1950. In his later years, he was an early advocate for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He went on to produce a significant body of work, much of it for London Transport with his famous posters. Married to opera singer, Dorothy d'Orsay, they lived an idyllic existence at their home, 'The Wilderness' in Epping Forest.
