Russell Partridge BROCKBANK (1913-1979)

Cartoonist

Russell Partridge Brockbank at work

Birth Certificate

Russell Brockbank was a cartoonist born on 15 April 1913.  He was the second child of Clarence and Caroline Brockbank. Clarence, an Electrical Engineer, had emigrated from England in the early 1900s and had married Caroline (née Partridge) in Southbridge, Massachusetts, USA on 20 August 1909.   Their first child Maurice Chester was born in the USA on 30 August 1910.  Caroline wanted her second child to be born in the British Empire, so the family moved to Canada and Russell was born in the Municipal Hospital, Niagara Falls, Ontario. In November 1919, the family returned from Canada intending to stay at least a year in Sutton, Surrey. They moved back to Canada in 1920 but to avoid the worst of the depression era they moved back to England arriving at Southampton 0n 10 May 1929.

10 May 1929 Arrival at Southampton

As a four-year-old child, Russell had started drawing cars and an interest in motor racing became his lifelong passion.  After his family moved to England in 1929 he studied at Chelsea Art School where he developed his drawing, style specializing in motor cars, motor racing and aviation art.

His studies were cut short after he skipped Art School to see a motor race at Brands Hatch as his father saw a Pathé news clip of him assisting a driver from a crashed and burning racing car.  Following this incident his father refused to continue paying for his Art School fees so Russell took a job working in his father’s industrial ceramics factory.

On 16 November 1933 Russell married Eileen Mary Hames, a bank clerk, in the Epsom registration district, and by 1935 they were living at 12 First Avenue, West Ewell until they moved in 1937 to 3 West Gardens in Ewell village. The couple went on to have two children Roger (1934) and Susan (1943).

1939 Register – 3 West Gardens Ewell

While working at the factory – it will be seen above that his entry in the September 1939 Register lists him as “Technical Engineer (Abrasives)” – Russell sold some of his drawings to various magazines, but his big break came when he sold 5 drawings to be used as Christmas cards to Prince Bira of Siam for £25, which was the equivalent of several weeks’ wages. In late 1939, he left the family firm to become a full time-artist and started drawing for Punch.

During WW2 Russell served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve on convoy duties but also contributed cartoons to magazines such as The Motor and produced drawings for the Ministry of Aircraft Production’s Aircraft Recognition magazine.   Russell’s brother Maurice Chester Brockbank is also remembered on this website as in 1945 he died in action while serving as a Captain in the Royal Marine Commandos.

By 1946, Russell and his family had moved to 43 The Rise, Ewell.

After the war Russell returned to work as a full-time artist specializing in motoring and aviation art and cartoons. Russell’s work was frequently mischievous, drawn in a clear style with sufficient detail to make the model of car or plane readily recognizable.  One of his trademark characters was “Major Upsett”, a short bowler-hatted man driving a 1940s Austin 8 Tourer, who got into humorous motoring situations.  Russell’s work was published in numerous magazines and journals at home and abroad, including Lilliput, Motor and Punch.    In 1949 he became the Art Editor for Punch till he left in 1960 but he still carried on submitting work to the magazine so in total his work appeared in the publication for a total of 30 years.

One of Brockbank’s Major Upsett cartoons

In 1952 the family were recorded as having moved away to The Old Cottage, The Lane, Thursley, Surrey, and sometime later to 14 Gould’s Ground, Frome, Somerset,

Russell Partridge Brockbank died on 14 May 1979 in the Mendip Hospital, Wells, from bronchopneumonia and emphysema. His funeral was held four days later. Probate of his effects was valued at £78,655.

Brockbank also worked on several books:

• Round the Bend (1948?)
• Up the Straight (1955)
• Over the Line (1955)
• Bees Under my Bonnet (with Ronald Collier) (1955)
• Motoring Abroad (with Rodney Walkerley)
• More Motoring Abroad (with Rodney Walkerley)
• The Brockbank Omnibus (1957)
• Manifold Pressures (1958)
• Move Over! (1962)
• Motoring Through Punch (1970)
• Brockbank’s Grand Prix (1973)
• The Best of Brockbank (1975)

Brockbank cartoons for an Esso advertisement

A couple of Brockbank Cartoons

Peter Reed and Hazel Ballan 2021