Harry Wingfield

Who was Harry Wingfield?

John Henry "Harry" Wingfield was an English illustrator, best known for his drawings that illustrated the Ladybird Books Key Words Reading Scheme in the 1960s through to the 1980s, which sold over 80 million copies worldwide.

Wingfield was born in Denby, near Derby, the son of a blastfurnace man. He grew up in Manchester and Derbyshire. Hoping to become an engineer, he failed to obtain an apprenticeship to Rolls Royce because of his stammer, he started his first job, in an advertising agency in Derby, aged 16, and then worked in Walsall and Birmingham. He took evening classes in drawing, where he met his wife, Ethel and he served in the RAF in the Second World War as a driver in the RAF regiment. Based in the Azores he painted camouflage but also gained a reputation for painting portraits of colleagues and family members. He worked as a graphic designer when he returned to England before working as a freelance illustrator for Ladybird in the 1950s.

His watercolours, along with those of Martin Aitchison, provided strong images to accompany the simple text devised by William Murray. Wingfield's wife Ethel, as an expert in early learning, was a significant collaborator. His best-known work accompanied books in the Key Words Reading Scheme brought out by Ladybird as competition to the American Janet and John books. They conformed to stereotypes, with neat, obedient children; Peter helping Daddy with the car or in the garden, and Jane helping Mummy in the kitchen. They featured images initially based on photography of families on new council estates of the period, a market they targeted with phenomenal success.