Biography of the Artist – Leslie Cole (1910-1976)
LESLIE JAMES COLE
was born in Swindon, Wiltshire on 11 August 1910 to a middle class family who were members of the Plymouth Brethern movement. Cole attended Birmingham College for a year where he followed a teacher training course. He also attended supplementary courses in mural and fabric painting and jewellery design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. Postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art followed from 1934 to 1937 and during that time Cole acquired skills in mural painting, lithography and engraving. His tutors at the RCA included John Nash, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Barnett Freedman.
Upon graduating in 1937, Cole was appointed fulltime Assistant Lecturer in charge lithography at Hull College of Art and he also became a member of the Senefelder Club. He became acquainted with Dylan Thomas and painted his portrait around the time. In 1938 Cole married Brenda Harvey a model and potter by profession. The couple remained childless.
When World War II broke out Cole sold some paintings and lithographs to the WAAC and applied for the post of official war artist. He was regularly awarded one-off commissions but it was only two years later that his full-time appointment came through. In August 1942 Cole was entrusted with painting war scenes in Malta. His official appointment as war artist earned him the right to a war correspondent’s licence, a monthly salary as well as free artist-materials during his overseas postings.
Cole’s sojourn in Malta lasted six months (April-October 1943) and he produced several canvasses as Ministry of Information artist with War Office duties. Cole painted most of the colonial government’s senior members in Malta with the exception of the Governor, Lord Gort and the Lieutenant Governor Callender-Campbell.
After his return to Britain in November 1943 Cole enjoyed a short domestic interlude before being sent to Normandy. In 1944 he painted the Royal Marines bringing down a VI (Flying Bomb) launched by the Germans against south-east England. A trip to Cairo followed next where he replaced William Coldstream for a short period in the Middle Eastern Theatre.
He arrived in Greece and recorded the Communist withdrawal after the latter had unsuccessfully tried to gain control of the country in January 1945.
Further missions included being present and recording the British liberation of the notorious BergenBelsen concentration camp. In late 1945 the WAAC sent Cole and fellow war artist Thomas Hennell to the Far East to paint the devastation caused by the retreating Japanese Army. Cole painted several canvasses of Changi Gaol and its prisoners of war. In January 1946 Cole went to Borneo and was joined by fellow war artist Bernard Hailstone. He ceased to be an officially appointed war artist upon his return to Britain in March 1946.
Cole returned to civilian life and in 1946 he resumed his part-time teaching duties one day a week in the Graphic Design Department at the Brighton College of Art and Crafts. Cole also tutored twice a week at the Central School of Arts and Crafts where he taught lithography and life drawing. He was conversant in French and Spanish and enjoyed frequent visits to Ibiza with his wife Brenda where they joined a community of artists working on the island. Cole suffered a fatal stroke on 5 May 1976, aged 65.