# Brian Robb

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English painter

Brian Robb Born 7 May 1913 Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England Died 1979 (aged 65–66) Education Chelsea School of Art Slade School of Fine Art Known for Illustrator, cartoonist; wartime camoufleur Spouse Barbara Robb

**Brian Robb** (7 May 1913 – 1979) was a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist. He worked for [Shell](/source/Shell_plc) and [London Transport](/source/London_Passenger_Transport_Board), designing posters and advertisements, and as a cartoonist for *[Punch](/source/Punch_(magazine))*. During [World War II](/source/World_War_II), he served as a camouflage officer in the [Western Desert](/source/Western_Desert_Campaign). He taught at Chelsea College of Art before and after the war, before becoming head of illustration at the Royal College of Art.

## Biography

### Early life

Robb was educated at [Malvern College](/source/Malvern_College). He studied at [Chelsea School of Art](/source/Chelsea_School_of_Art) from 1930, and at the [Slade School of Fine Art](/source/Slade_School_of_Fine_Art) from 1935.[1][2]

During the 1930s he became known for his humorous cartoons published in *[Punch](/source/Punch_(magazine))*. He was a skilled illustrator, creating both pen-and-ink and watercolour illustrations for books such as *The Adventures of Odd and Elsewhere*. He was in demand for his ability to design posters for [London Transport](/source/London_Passenger_Transport_Board) and advertisements for [Shell](/source/Shell_plc), where he had worked for Jack Beddington.[1][2]

In 1937 he married [Barbara Anne](/source/Barbara_Robb), founder of the pressure group Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions (AEGIS) and NHS policy campaigner.

After finishing his education at the Slade, he returned to Chelsea School of Art as a lecturer.[1]

### Wartime camoufleur

Further information: [Operation Bertram](/source/Operation_Bertram) and [List of camoufleurs](/source/List_of_camoufleurs)

The head of the [Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate](/source/Middle_East_Command_Camouflage_Directorate), [Geoffrey Barkas](/source/Geoffrey_Barkas), always short of skilled [camouflage officers](/source/List_of_camoufleurs), heard that there was an artist working as a private soldier in the Sinai desert. He found Robb sitting, utterly bored, beside a searchlight with nothing to do. Barkas promptly had Robb posted to his department at General Headquarters (GHQ) in [Cairo](/source/Cairo). Once there, he was duly commissioned and trained to be a Camouflage Officer. Remarkably, the lassitude quickly vanished: he was soon doing all duties with energy, good humour and enthusiasm.[2]

Robb's ability was put to use in [Operation Bertram](/source/Operation_Bertram), the large-scale camouflage and deception operation for the [battle of El Alamein](/source/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein). Barkas put [Tony Ayrton](/source/Tony_Ayrton) and Robb in charge of the enormous and complex task of camouflaging Eighth Army's preparations and movements on the genuine attack path in the north, near the coast road, while creating a complete dummy armoured division in the south, near El Munassib in the desert. The dummy stores dump in the south was codenamed "Brian" after Robb. The dump contained 700 false piles of stores, simulating everything from ammunition and petrol to food and engineering tools.[3][4][5][6]

### Artist and teacher

After the war, Robb returned to his lecturing job at the Chelsea School of Art, where he inspired a generation of artists such as the illustrator [Quentin Blake](/source/Quentin_Blake).[7][8] In 1963, he moved to become head of illustration at the [Royal College of Art](/source/Royal_College_of_Art), taking over from [Edward Ardizzone](/source/Edward_Ardizzone).[9] He retired in 1978.[1]

## Legacy

Quentin Blake wrote that "Robb's work had a humane, wry, almost teasing character that makes me wish he had set his hand to more children's books than he did. Brian Robb established illustration as a separate strand in the educational life of the college [Chelsea]."[9]

## Works

**Books illustrated by Robb**

- [Aesop](/source/Aesop) (trans. S.A. Handford) (1954). *Aesop's Fables*. Penguin.

- Andreyev, Leonid Nikolaevich (trans. Walter Morison) (1947). *Judas Iscariot and Other Stories*. John Westhouse.

- Anon (1968-9). *The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament*. Oxford University Press. (in part)

- [Apuleius](/source/Apuleius) (trans. William Adlington) (1947). *The Golden Asse of Lucius Apuleius*. John Westhouse.

- [Barkas, Geoffrey](/source/Geoffrey_Barkas) (1952). *The Camouflage Story. From Aintree to Alamein*. Cassell.

- Day, Charles William (1946). *Hints on Etiquette and the Usages of Society*. Turnstile Press.

- De Quincey, A. (1947). *The Last of the Dragons*. Hamish Hamilton.

- [Douglas, Alfred](/source/Alfred_Douglas) (1979). *Tails With a Twist: Animal Nonsense Verse*. Batsford.

- [Fielding, Henry](/source/Henry_Fielding)(1953). *Tom Jones*. Macdonald.

- [Nesbit, Edith](/source/E._Nesbit) (1977). *Fairy Stories*. Ernest Benn.

- [Raspe, Rudolph Eric](/source/Rudolf_Erich_Raspe) (1947). *12 Adventures of the Celebrated Baron Munchausen*. Peter Lunn.

- Robb, Brian *My Grandmother's Djinn*. Deutsch. (1976).

- Robb, Brian (1944). *My Middle East Campaigns*. Collins.

- Robb, Brian (1979). *The Last of the Centaurs*. Deutsch.

- [Roose-Evans, James](/source/James_Roose-Evans) (1974). *Elsewhere & the Clowns*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1973). *Odd and the Great Bear*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1975). *Odd to the Rescue!*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1971). *The Adventures of Odd and Elsewhere*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1977). *The Lost Treasure of Wales*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1975). *The Return of the Great Bear*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1975). *The Secret of Tippity Witchit*. Deutsch.

- Roose-Evans, James (1972). *The Secret of the Seven Bright Shiners*. Deutsch.

- [Sterne, Laurence](/source/Laurence_Sterne) (1948). *[A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy](/source/A_Sentimental_Journey_Through_France_and_Italy)*. Macdonald.

- Sterne, Laurence (1949). *[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman](/source/The_Life_and_Opinions_of_Tristram_Shandy%2C_Gentleman)*. Macdonald.

- de Quincey, T. (1948). *My Kingdom for a Cow!*. Hamish Hamilton.

**Paintings**

- Gondolas, Venice[10]

## Bibliography

**Camouflage**

- Barkas, Geoffrey; Barkas, Natalie (1952). *The Camouflage Story (from Aintree to Alamein)*. Cassell.

- Crowdy, Terry (2008). *Deceiving Hitler: Double Cross and Deception in World War II*. Osprey.

- Rankin, Nicholas (2008). *Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945*. Faber.

- Stroud, Rick (2012). *The Phantom Army of Alamein: How the Camouflage Unit and Operation Bertram Hoodwinked Rommel*. Bloomsbury.

**Art**

- Horne, Alan (1994). *Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators*. British Antique Collectors' Club.

## Notes

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-LTM_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-LTM_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-LTM_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-LTM_1-3) ["Artist - Brian Robb"](http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Brian+Robb). London Transport Museum. 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2012.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Stroud181_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Stroud181_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Stroud181_2-2) Stroud, 2012. p181.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Rankin, 2008. pp365-366.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Barkas, 1952. pp186-212.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Crowdy, 2008. pp178-181

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Stroud198_6-0)** Stroud, 2012. p198.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Blake, Quentin (2012). ["Brian Robb and Life Classes at Chelsea College of Art"](http://www.webofstories.com/play/16690). Web of Stories. Retrieved 15 November 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Blake, Quentin (2012). ["Brian Robb and getting a job teaching at Chelsea College of Art"](http://www.webofstories.com/play/16691?o=MS). Web of Stories. Retrieved 15 November 2012.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-TES_9-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-TES_9-1) Blake, Quentin. ["Times Educational Supplement"](http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=9600). *The Next Generation*. TES. Retrieved 15 November 2012.{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_deprecated_archival_service))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** [ArtFact: Brian Robb](http://www.artfact.com/artist/robb-brian-lsiz4jdt37). Retrieved 15 November 2012.

## External links

- [LTM: Posters by Brian Robb](https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/search?q=Brian+Robb)

- [Movie Poster *My Teenage Daughter* by Brian Robb (1956)](http://www.moviepostermem.com/My-Teenage-Daughter-Poster/55682)

- [Video 1](http://www.webofstories.com/play/16690) [Video 2](http://www.webofstories.com/play/16691?o=MS) [Quentin Blake](/source/Quentin_Blake) on Brian Robb at Chelsea College of Art

- [Brian Robb](https://lccn.loc.gov/n50051039) at the [Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress), with 8 library catalogue records

- Brian Robb at The Visual Telling of Stories [\[1\]](https://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/r/robb/menu.htm)

v t e Camoufleurs World War I Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola Jean-Louis Forain Louis Guingot Loyd A. Jones John Graham Kerr Paul Klee Franz Marc Alister Hardy André Mare Kimon Nicolaïdes Solomon Joseph Solomon Abbott Handerson Thayer Maximilian Toch Leon Underwood Edward Wadsworth Everett Warner Norman Wilkinson World War II Tony Ayrton Geoffrey Barkas Hugh Casson John Codner Bainbridge Copnall Hugh B. Cott Victorine Foot Frederick Gore Stanley William Hayter Ivan Konev Jasper Maskelyne Oliver Messel Colin Moss Roland Penrose Peter Proud Fred Pusey Brian Robb Peter Scott Edward Seago Alan Sorrell Basil Spence Steven Sykes Ernest Townsend Julian Trevelyan Wilfred Clement Von Berg

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat National United States Netherlands Poland Israel Artists ULAN RKD Artists People Trove Other IdRef SNAC Yale LUX

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Brian Robb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Robb) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Robb?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.