Guest post: Memories of Dudley D Watkins by Angela Keyworth

I'm delighted to share this wonderful guest post by Angela Keyworth (nee Watkins). Thank you so much Angela I'm sure readers of this blog will enjoy it every bit as much as I did.

Memories of my Uncle Dudley D Watkins

Will Watkins was a lithographic print artist.  He came from London to Nottingham in search of work, where he met and married my Grandmother, Eva Charlotte Dexter.  Work must have been in short supply, so my Grandparents moved to Manchester seeking employment.  Dudley was born there in 1907 and my Grandparents moved back to Nottingham three months later.  They obviously hadn't made their fortune!

Dudley was a gifted artist from an early age.  After leaving school he worked for Boots the Chemist in the arts department and attended Nottingham School of Art.  He later moved to Glasgow School of Art and spent the rest of his life working for D C Thomson in Dundee.  In many articles about Dudley it states that his family moved to Scotland but this was not so.  My Grandparents, my father Alec and his sister my Aunt Dorothy stayed in Nottingham.  My father was born in 1916 so was only a school boy when Dudley left home.

Dudley was the creator and first artist to draw Desperate Dan in the Dandy comic, Lord Snooty in the Beano comic and several other comic characters. He also drew The Broons, a Scottish family story and Oor Wullie, a wee boy in dungarees who started and ended his days sitting on a bucket!  The Broons and Oor Wullie can still be found in the centrefold pages of the Scottish Sunday Post today.  Dudley was also a very fine landscape artist.  He illustrated four books.  Kidnapped, Oliver Twist, Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island.  I have these books, three of which are inscribed to my parents.  I shall keep them for a rainy day!  Dudley's work is very much sort after, but very rarely comes on the market.


When I was a young girl, Dudley and his family would come to Nottingham on holiday once or at the most twice a year to stay with my Grandmother.  I can vividly remember sitting on Dudley's knee in my Grandmother's front room watching him ink in the cartoon characters and write the speech bubbles.  Such was his work load that he always brought work with him on holiday.  In the afternoons we would go out into the countryside and Dudley and my Aunt who was also an artist would set up their easels and sketch.  I would run between the two of them to see which drawing I preferred.  I always liked Dudley's the best and I would whisper in his ear and tell him so!  Dorothy was a fine artist too and I have some of her work, although she emigrated to Salt Lake City to be with her American relatives, the Dexter family who also had artists in the family.  Some of my Aunt's paintings are still over the water!

In my Grandmother's front room was a lovely little bureau.  I am sitting at it now working at my laptop.  I wonder what my Grandparents would make of a laptop?!  At least the bureau is still being used for the purpose it was built.

My Uncle didn't have a daughter and so made a great fuss of me which I lapped up!  He was a lovely, lovely man.

Source: Nottingham post

Angela Keyworth, Nottingham

NB. If you are interested in Dudley D Watkins be sure to read the comments section. Angela has added a lot more information in her replies.