L.Ashwell Wood & the 'Eagle' cutaway drawings

[Balsabasher]

It is hard to believe that these fragile original pieces of artwork are now over 53 years old,they show the type of aircraft that many museums are now preserving,to me the fifties was the most interesting period of development with so many different types of aircraft in our skies,they have not been out of their folder now for a very long time and I had all but forgotton about them,this is only a small selection specially chosen for this posting,I wanted to share them with you as to me at least they are very beautiful pieces of artwork from times past before computers came on the scene.

Ashwell Wood had a distinct illustrative style that featured in many books and magazines, notably working as Eagle's longest running artist. His intricately detailed annotated sketches, often featuring a familiar 'cut-away' section, were not only artistically clean and sharp but also educational, offering clear explanations to complicated scenes."

This artist was my earliest inspiration to draw and paint aeroplanes,every week I would look forward to the Eagle and go straight to the centre spread for the latest cutaway drawing,to me the drawings had such charm and crispness not achieved by any other technical artist at that time,his prolific output outshone other contributing artists at Hulton Press,I actually had the great pleasure of seeing one of his original works of art,it was done in gouache on a large hardboard panel and was on display with the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy model at Owen Owen stores in Coventry where I worked for a short while as a display artist before entering the aircraft industry,the added bonus for me was assisting in setting up the AWA display within the store,to see first hand an original made my day.

Ashwell Wood's year of birth was 1913 and elsewhere we learn that Ashwell Wood was employed as a designer in an aircraft factory (presumably in the 1930s).
The earliest work I've found by L. Ashwell Wood appeared on the back cover of Modern Wonder vol. 2 no. 31 (18 December 1937); he also became one of their regular cover artists from vol. 3 no. 57 (18 June 1938), producing some 24 covers before the magazine switched to photographic covers in April 1939; he continued to produce illustrations for the centre pages and back covers for the magazine on and off until March 1941, by which time the title had changed to Modern World.
In the very first issue of Eagle (14 April 1950), Ashwell Wood produced a cutaway of 'The New Gas Turbine-Electric Locomotive'. He went on to produce almost 40 cutaways for the first year of Eagle and hundreds more well into the 1960s.

Ashwell Wood also drew the brief series 'In Her Majesty's Lifetime' in 20 February - 1 May 1953 (vol. 3 no. 46 - vol. 4 no. 4) and made various contributions to the first six Eagle Annuals
The problem with discovering hard information on Leslie Ashwell Wood began with the simple fact that nobody seems to know when he died -- sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. I actually struck lucky quite quickly searching the death registers and found that Leslie Ashwell Wood died in early 1973 at Brent (NW London). Then the problems began... according to the register, Leslie Ashwell Wood was born 29 July 1903, not 1913. I'm pretty sure there can't be two Leslie Ashwell Woods. It's a very uncommon combination of names.

Just to double check I went through the birth records for 1913 and could find no Leslie A. Wood listed. However, there were no Leslie Ashwell Woods born in 1903 either! The nearest I could find was a Leslie Alfred Wood, born in Ashby de la Zouch (Leicestershire), who was, at least, born in the right quarter. A further five plain Leslie Woods were born in the same quarter along with a Leslie Charles and a Leslie Justin.

So could 'Ashwell' Wood be a pseudonym adopted by Leslie Alfred Wood or just plain Leslie Wood? Perhaps that's why so little is known about him... everyone has been looking for the wrong person! Or could all this be a red herring? Sometimes parents change their minds between registering a birth and Christening their child, adding or subtracting names.
One thing I noticed was that the early artwork in Modern Wonder was signed 'Ashwell' rather than in full. Could it be that Leslie Wood adopted the name 'Ashwell' because he was moonlighting from his work at H. & A. Dix? Later illustrations are signed more fully but would his bosses have connected Leslie Wood with the illustrator L. Ashwell Wood?
In 1972, L. Ashwell Wood was living at 68 Chambers Lane, N.W.10. By the mid- to late-1970s that was the address of F. L. Wood. Some of Ashwell Wood's paintings were sold by Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co. at auction in 1978, described as the property of Mrs. Florence Ashwell-Wood who was, presumably, his widow. Florence Ashwell Wood, born on 9 April 1906, died in Ipswich in 1985, at the age of 79.

Barry.

[Peter]

Wow Barry,

The photos are quite something. You should definitely keep those somewhere safe. What is the air freighter? I don't recognize it.

Peter

[Balsabasher]

Peter it is the forerunner of the Blackburn Beverley transport aircraft as used by the Royal Air Force,initially Blackburns showed the aircraft at the SBAC show at Farnborough as a civil project thinking that there would be such a market for a huge freighter like this.
Court Line purchased a former RAF Beverley with the intentions of using it for ferrying engines etc for their fleet of airliners but no certification was forthcoming.
Sir W.G.Armstrong Whitworth did quite a bit of the design work on the Beverley before they embarked on their own AW.650 freighter aircraft.
Also on a local note we had a Beverley land and take off on the grass here at Baginton for the 1960 airshow,this was the first time ever that I had seen any aircraft taxy backwards !
Glad that you like the fine artwork done by a master in his field.
Barry.

[Peter]

Thanks Barry, fascinating stuff!

Peter