After Epsom College (other accounts say 1918) he becomes an apprentice at the Midland Railway locomotive works in Derby, where relatives had worked before him; a year later (other accounts say three) he persuades his father that engineering is not for him. Having failed to win a place at the Slade School of Art, he enters Goldsmiths in 1921, specialising in engraving and etching.
1923
First graphic works at the Royal Academy
Shows his first graphic works at the Royal Academy exhibition in London. From 1921 to 1933 he works almost exclusively in printmaking, in its various forms.
1925
Drawings and engravings at the XXI Gallery, London
Exhibits drawings and engravings at the XXI Gallery in London, and again there in 1928. While still a student he builds a name as a fine printmaker, and commercial printmaking remains his main income through the late 1920s; his early pastoral prints show the influence of Samuel Palmer, mediated by the older etcher F. L. Griggs.
1925–1933 · Career
the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers
Elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1925; expelled from it in 1933.
