Clifford Webb was an English artist, illustrator and author: RBA 1936, Revue Economique 1948.
Education
He was apprenticed as a lithographer, but served in the British Army (Wiltshire Regiment) during World War I and then studied at the Westminster School of Artist From 1919-1922, he studied at the Westminster School of Art under Walter Bayes and Bernard Meninsky and then from 1923-1926 he was a part-time lecturer at Central School of Art in Birmingham.
Career
He fought at Mons, Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. He was wounded four times and mentioned in despatches. Between 1917-1919, he served as a captain in the Indian Army.
He specialised in animal drawings, and also produced the illustrations for the first two books of the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.
Initially for the second edition of Swallows and Amazons (as Ransome did not like the illustrations produced for the first edition by Steven Spurrier, which were not used apart from the endpaper map and the dust jacket). Webb also illustrated the second book, Swallowdale.
Ransome then illustrated Peter Duck, the third and all subsequent books himself, and in 1938 Ransome produced illustrations for later editions of Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale replacing Webb"s drawings. The Story of Noah
The Thirteenth Pig 1965
Butterwick Farm 1933
Animals from Everywhere 1938
More Animals from Everywhere 1959
The Story of Noah 1931
A Jungle Picnic 1934
The North Pole Before Lunch 1936
The Friendly Place 1962
Magic Island
Strange Creatures 1963
All Kinds of Animals 1970
The Key and the Chest
Tim Minds the Shop
Tim Minds the Baby
Tim thinks of Something
The Top of the Mountain
The Gates Family
The Go-To-Bed book 1935
He also illustrated other books;
Swallow and Amazons: Arthur Ransome, 1930
Swallowdale: Arthur Ransome, 1931
An Introduction to India: East. Lucia Turnbull 1933
A Key to the Countryside: Marcus Woodward 1934
A Surgeon"s China: Albert Gervais 1934
Words Beasts and Fishes: Marmaduke Dixey 1936
The Hill Fox: Ernest Lewis 1937
Under the Chesnut Tree: Ida Gandy 1938
Creatures Great and Small: Theodora Horton 1938
The Gentle Art of Walking: Geoffrey Murray, 1939
The Pig who was too thin: Margaret Alleyne 1946
The Enchanted Glen: Beatrice Carroll 1947
Moss Green Days: Ralph Wightman 1952.