Renowned illustrator of Rudyard Kipling and Enid Blyton books to be honoured at former home in Winslow

A plaque honouring artist Stuart Tresilian, who illustrated books by Rudyard Kipling and Enid Blyton, is to be mounted in Sheep Street, Winslow, where he lived.

Cecil Stuart Hazell Tresilian was a British artist and illustrator, who was born in 1891 and retired to Winsow where he lived until his death in 1974.

He was best known for his illustrations of children's books, including Rudyard Kipling's Animal Stories and All the Mowgli Stories, and Enid Blyton's Adventure Series.

Former neighbour Trevor Goosey said: “I was a neighbour of Stuart Tresilian from 1960 to 1974, in very friendly terms, when he and his wife lived at 47 Sheep Street, Winslow.

"But as chairman of the Winslow Chamber of Trade I was surprised to find out at our recent quarterly lunch that no one knew much about Stuart who provided illustrations for Rudyard Kipling and Enid Blyton, among others.

“So to honour him we’re having a plaque, similar to the official blue plaques run by English Heritage, made and mounted outside the house in Sheep Street.”

Mr Goosey added: “Stuart was a lovely man, but very low key and we often used to chat over sherry and biscuits. Our gardens adjoined, and he grew fruit and vegetables and exchanged them for my mowing their lawn.

“He often talked about his love of animals and visiting London Zoo where he spent many hours drawing the animals especially lions.

“After he died I was given a painting of Winslow High Street, which is absolutely amazing.”

Stuart Tresilian was born in Barton Regis, Gloucestershire, on July 12, 1891, and grew up in Islington, London. He became a professional vocalist, and later served in the Army Audit Department. He later studied art at Regent Street Polytechnic, where he became a pupil teacher, and gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art before the First World War.

During the war he served with the Fifth London Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. He was wounded and captured in 1918, and held at Rastatt. The drawings he did during his incarceration are held at the Imperial War Museum.

He was a prolific illustrator from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, working on magazines like The Wide World Magazine, Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, Zoo, The Passing Show, The Wide World Magazine and Britannia and Eve, as well as numerous children's books for Macmillan, Cambridge University Press, Jonathan Cape, The Bodley Head and others.

In 1961 he was co-author, with Herbert J Williams, of Human Anatomy for Art Students.

He was a brother of the Art Workers Guild, being elected Master in 1960, and a member of the Society of Graphic Art, serving as its president from 1962 to 1965. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, and had his first solo show, including his illustrations for Kipling's Mowgli Stories, drawings done in London Zoo, and photographs, in 1970 at Upper Grosvenor Galleries.