John Farleigh, 1900-1965

The artist and wood engraver [John] Frederick William Charles Farleigh (1900-1965), was born in London in 1900. He left school at 14 to become an articled apprentice at the Artists Illustrators Agency, London, where his work involved lettering, wax engravings and black and white drawings for press advertising. At the same time he began to attend evening classes in drawing at the Bolt Court School. In 1918 he was called up for service in the army and served until the armistice in November of that year. In 1919 he completed his apprenticeship and obtained a government grant which enabled him to study full time for three years at the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts (later the Central School of Art and Design). Amongst his teachers there were Bernard Meninsky and Noel Rooke who introduced him to wood engraving. From 1922 to 1925 Farleigh taught art at Rugby School before returning to London to take up a part-time post at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, teaching antique and still-life drawing and later, illustration.

Whilst continuing his work as a teacher, John Farleigh pursued the three strands of his artistic career: as a designer, perhaps most notably for London Transport (1933 - 1963); as a book illustrator, employing his great talents as a wood engraver and as a producer of fine, individual prints, again from wood engraving.

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