Reg Waywell Born 14th September 1924 Died 8th October 2019 Aged 95 

 

Reg Waywell was born in Whitecross, Warrington on 14 September 1924.  He was educated at St Barnabas School, later moving on to Bewsey Council School followed by Bewsey Juniors Council School and finishing in Bewsey Seniors Council School where he achieved 100% for art and featured in the Bewsey Boys concert group as a lightning cartoonist.  He was given the opportunity to win a scholarship and attended the local school of art

 

At 14 he became a junior draughtsman at Richmond’s until he was called up during the Second World War where he trained at Seighton Camp, Chester, and was posted to Berwick on Tweed in the Lancashire Fusiliers.  From there he continued his training in the second sixth Battalion, Holt, Norfolk, and was posted overseas to 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, 78th Division, 8th Army where he saw active service in the Mediterranean.

 

Wounded with a grenade near Lake Trasimeno, Italy, he convalesced in Cancello where he was able to continue his interest in art. He was transferred into the Royal Army Service Corps and continued to follow his interest in his spare time at 2nd Echelon, Maddaloni. He also attended art classes in Naples during the weekends. 

 

On leave in Rome he was further influenced by the great works of art in and sculpture in St. Peters and other basilicas throughout the city and, on his return to Britain, was posted to Shrewsbury where, in leisure moments, he attended local art classes, later volunteering to attend Formation College, Newbattle Abbey, Dalkeith, Scotland where he formally studied fine art.

 

Towards the end of four years service in the Army, he was demobilized at York and traveled to St Helier, Jersey, eventually returning home where he painted four large murals and invited the Warrington Examiner to write an article and publish photographs.

 

He went to the Warrington School of Art, having won another scholarship, and for approximately 3 years he studied life drawing, architecture and commercial art.

 

He then began submitting his work to North West art exhibitions and shared the same exhibition rooms as L.S.Lowry at the old Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

 

This was at the time of the cold war and, failing to get a job in commercial art due to being still on the army class z reserve, he worked at Burtonwood Base Exchange as a display artist. 

 

He later secured a position at Hodgkinsons in the display department for two years; at John Myers, Manchester, as a layout artist for two years; and as a flexographic artist at Alliance Box Company, Warrington, for ten years.

 

 

He attended art classes at the Warrington School of Art for both writing and painting where he published a book, which included some of his black and white drawings, entitled Through a Glass Lightly. 

 

 

 

Reg won the first-ever Warrington Purchase Prize for an oil painting of the Lever Bros Tower, which can now be viewed on the BBC’s Art Website.

 

 

As an established and well known Northern Artist his work is much sought after and can be viewed in the permanent collection of the Warrington Museum and Art Gallery.

 

Reg was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine art by the University of Chester for his lifelong dedication and services to local art in both Lancashire and Cheshire.

 

This website contains only a few out of the hundreds of drawings and paintings that Reg has produced.

 

Sadly Reg died after a very short illness on the 8th of October 2019 but leaves us with this wonderful legacy of local art-focused mostly on the Bewsey and Whitecross areas of Warrington.