William Heath Robinson (31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944) was an English

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, illustrator and artist who drew whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives. The earliest citation in the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' for the use of "Heath Robinson" as a noun describing any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance is from 1917. The phrase "Heath Robinson contraption" perhaps most commonly describes temporary fixes using ingenuity and whatever is to hand, often string and tape, or unlikely cannibalisations. Its continuing popularity was likely linked to Britain's shortages during the Second World War and the need to "make do and mend".

Early life

William Heath Robinson was born in Hornsey Rise, London, on 31 May 1872 into a family of artists in Stroud Green,

Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in Harringay, north London, England. The park lies on the southern-most edge of the London Borough of Haringey. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal ...

, North London. His grandfather Thomas, his father Thomas Robinson (1838–1902) and brothers Thomas Heath Robinson (1869–1954) and Charles Robinson (1870–1937) all worked as illustrators. His uncle Charles was an illustrator for ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

''.

Career

His early career involved illustrating books – among others:

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

's ''Danish Fairy Tales and Legends'' (1897), ''

The Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

'' (1899), ''

Tales from Shakespeare ''Tales from Shakespeare'' is an English children's book written by the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807, intended "for the use of young persons" while retaining as much Shakespearean language as possible. Mary Lamb was responsible for ...

'' (1902), ''

Gargantua and Pantagruel ''The Five Books of the Lives and Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel'' (), often shortened to ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' or the (''Five Books''), is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It tells the advent ...

'' (1904), ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola an ...

'' (1908), ''Andersen's Fairy Tales'' (1913), ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'' (1914), Charles Kingsley's '' The Water-Babies'' (1915) and

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

's ''Peacock Pie'' (1916). Robinson was one of the leading illustrators selected by

Percy Bradshaw Percy Venner Bradshaw (27 November 1877 – 13 October 1965), who often signed PVB, was a British illustrator who also created the Press Art School, a correspondence course for drawing. Biography Percy Bradshaw was born in Hackney, part of L ...

for inclusion in his '' The Art of the Illustrator'' (1917–1918) which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators. Robinson served as a consultant at the

's The Press Art School, a school teaching painting, drawing, and illustration by correspondence. The consultants commented on the work submitted by the students. In the course of his work, Robinson wrote and illustrated three children's books, ''The Adventures of Uncle Lubin'' (1902), '' Bill the Minder'' (1912) and ''Peter Quip in Search of a Friend'' (1922). ''Uncle Lubin'' is regarded as the start of his career in the depiction of unlikely machines. During the First World War, he drew large numbers of

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

s, depicting ever-more-unlikely secret weapons being used by the combatants, and the American Expeditionary Force in France. After the war, his work was included in the painting event in the art competition at the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held du ...

William Heath Robinson Inventions - Page 034

As well as producing a steady stream of humorous drawings for magazines and advertisements, in 1934 he published a collection of his favourites as ''Absurdities'', such as: *"The

Wart Warts are non-cancerous viral growths usually occurring on the hands and feet but which can also affect other locations, such as the genitals or face. One or many warts may appear. They are distinguished from cancerous tumors as they are caus ...

Chair. A simple apparatus for removing a wart from the top of the head" *"Resuscitating stale

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

scone A scone ( or ) is a traditional British and Irish baked good, popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is usually made of either wheat flour or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often ...

s for redistribution at the station buffets" *"The multimovement

tabby A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a coat pattern distinguished by an M-shaped marking on its forehead, stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, around its legs and tail, and characteris ...

silencer", which automatically threw water at serenading cats Most of his cartoons have since been reprinted many times in multiple collections. In 1935 the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

(GWR) commissioned him to create a set of cartoons on the theme of the GWR itself, which they then published as ''Railway Ribaldry''. The Foreword (by GWR) notes that the cartoonist was given a free hand to re-imagine the history of the line for the amusement of its customers. The result is a 96-page softback book with alternating full-page cartoons and smaller vignettes, all on pertinent subjects. The machines he drew were frequently powered by steam

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

s or kettles, heated by

candle A candle is an ignitable candle wick, wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a Aroma compound, fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. ...

s or a spirit lamp and usually kept running by balding, bespectacled men in overalls. There would be complex

pulley Sheave without a rope A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft enabling a taut cable or belt passing over the wheel to move and change direction, or transfer power between itself and a shaft. A pulley may have a groove or grooves between flan ...

arrangements, threaded by lengths of knotted string. Robinson's cartoons were so popular that in Britain the term "Heath Robinson" is used to refer to an improbable, rickety machine barely kept going by incessant tinkering. (The corresponding term in the U.S. is ''

Rube Goldberg Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), better known as Rube Goldberg (), was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated ...

'', after the American cartoonist born just over a decade later, with an equal devotion to odd machinery. Similar "inventions" have been drawn by cartoonists in many countries, with the Danish Storm Petersen being on par with Robinson and Goldberg.) One of his most famous series of illustrations was that which accompanied the first '' Professor Branestawm'' book written by Norman Hunter. The stories told of the eponymous professor who was brilliant, eccentric and forgetful and provided a perfect backdrop for Robinson's drawings. Around 1928, Robinson was commissioned to design a range of nursery ware for W.R. Midwinter, a

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

pottery firm. Scenes from sixteen

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. Fr ...

s (some illustrated with more than one vignette) were printed on ware ranging from eggcups to biscuit barrels, each with a decorative border of characterful children's faces. Titled "Fairyland on China", the range was favourably reviewed in the trade press. The last project Robinson worked on shortly before he died was illustrations for Lilian M. Clopet's short story collection ''Once Upon a Time'', which was published in 1944. One of the automatic analysis machines built for

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

during the Second World War to assist in the decryption of German message traffic was named "

Heath Robinson William Heath Robinson (31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944) was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist who drew whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives. The earliest citation in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' f ...

" in his honour. It was a direct predecessor to the

Colossus Colossus, Colossos, or the plural Colossi or Colossuses, may refer to: Statues * Any exceptionally large statue; colossal statues, are generally taken to mean a statue at least twice life-size ** List of tallest statues ** :Colossal statues * ...

, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer.

Personal life

In 1903 he married Josephine Latey, the daughter of newspaper editor John Latey. In 1908 the Robinsons moved to

Pinner Pinner is a suburb in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 38,698 in 2021. Originally a mediaeval ...

, Middlesex where they had two children, Joan and Oliver. His house in Moss Lane is commemorated by a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

. In 1918 the Heath Robinsons moved to

Cranleigh Cranleigh is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Waverley, Surrey, England. It lies southeast of Guildford on a minor road east of the A281, which links Guildford with Horsham. It is in the north-west corner ...

, Surrey where their daughter attended St Catherine's School, Bramley and their son attended Cranleigh School. Heath Robinson drew designs and illustrations for local institutions and schools. Heath Robinson was too old to enlist for WW1; he took on two German POWs to garden after the Armistice. In 1929 the Heath Robinsons returned to London where his two children were now working.

Death and legacy

He died in September 1944, during the Second World War, and is buried in East Finchley Cemetery. The Heath Robinson Museum opened in October 2016 to house a collection of nearly 1,000 original artworks owned by The William Heath Robinson Trust. The museum is in Memorial Park,

, close to where the artist lived and worked.

In popular culture

The name "Heath Robinson" became part of common parlance in the UK for complex inventions that achieved absurdly simple results following its use as services slang during the 1914–1918 First World War. The spotting table used by the Royal Observer Corps during the Battle of Britain to determine the bearing and altitude of an incoming German raid before calling it in to the sector plotting room was known, affectionately, as "the Heath Robinson." In the ''

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

'' films, Wallace often invents Heath Robinson-like machines, with some inventions being direct references. During the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

(1982), British Harrier aircraft lacked their conventional "

chaff Chaff (; ) is dry, scale-like plant material such as the protective seed casings of cereal grains, the scale-like parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. Chaff cannot be digested by humans, but it may be fed to livestock, ploughed into soil ...

"-dispensing mechanism. Therefore,

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

engineers designed an impromptu delivery system of welding rods, split pins and string which allowed six packets of chaff to be stored in the speedbrake well and deployed in flight. Due to its improvised and ramshackle nature it was often referred to as the "Heath Robinson chaff modification".

Publications

*Patterson, R.F., illustrated by W. Heath Robinson, ''Mein Rant: A Summary in Light Verse of Mein Kampf''. 1940 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Works of Edgar Allan Poe'', Bell. 1900 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Uncle Lubin'', Richards. 1902 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Adventures of Don Quixote'', J.M. Dent. 1902 *Kipling, Rudyard, ''A Song of the English'', illustrated by W. Heath Robinson, London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1909 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Bill the Minder'', Constable & Co., London, 1912 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Some "Frightful" War Pictures'', Duckworth. 1915 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Hunlikely!'', Duckworth. 1916 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''The Saintly Hun: a book of German virtues'', Duckworth. 1917 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Flypapers'', Duckworth. 1919 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''The Rabelais'', Rabelais. rivate Printing1921 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Peter Quip in Search of a Friend'', Partridge 1921 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Humours of Golf'', Methuen. 1923, uckworth. 1973, *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Heath Robinson's Book of Goblins'', Hutchinson & Co, London, 1934 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Absurdities: A Book of Collected Drawings'', Hutchinson. 1934, uckworth. 1975, *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Railway Ribaldry'', Great Western Railway, 1935 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Railway Ribaldry'', Duckworth. 1935, uckworth. 1997, *Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to Live in Flat'', Hutchinson. 1936, uckworth. 1976* Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to be a Perfect Husband'', Hutchinson & Co, London, 1937 * Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to Make a Garden Grow'', Hutchinson & Co, London, 1938 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to be a Motorist'', Hutchinson & Co, London 1939 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to Make the Best of Things'' Hutchinson & Co London 1941 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to Build a New World'' Hutchinson & Co, London 1943 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''How to Run a Communal Home'' Hutchinson & Co London 1944 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''My Line of Life'', Blackie & Sons. 1938 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Let's Laugh: A Book of Humorous Inventions'', Hutchinson. 1939 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Heath Robinson at War'', Methuen. 1942 *Clopet, Lilian M., illustrated by W. Heath Robinson, ''Once Upon a Time''. 1944 *Lewis, John. ''Heath Robinson Artist and Comic Genius'', Barnes and Noble. 1973 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Inventions'', Duckworth. 1973, *De Freitas, Leo John, ''The Fantastic Paintings of Charles and William Heath Robinson'', Peacock/Bantam. 1976 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Devices'', Duckworth. 1977, *Beare, Geoffrey. ''The Illustrations of W. Heath Robinson'', Werner Shaw. 1983 *Beare, Geoffrey. ''W. Heath Robinson'', Chris Beetles. 1987 *Hamilton, James, ''William Heath Robinson'', Pavilion. 1992 *Beare, Geoffrey, ''The Brothers Robinson'', Chris Beetles. 1992 *Beare, Geoffrey, ''The Art of William Heath Robinson'', Dulwich Picture Gallery. 2003 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Contraptions'', Duckworth. 2007 *Robinson, W. Heath, ''Britain at Play'', Duckworth. 2008 *Beare, Geoffrey, ''Heath Robinson's Commercial Art'', Lund Humphries, 2017 * Hart-Davis, Adam, ''Very Heath Robinson'', Sheldrake Press. 2017

Notes

References

Historic Figures
at the BBC web site. Retrieved May 2007

External links

The William Heath Robinson Trust

The Heath Robinson Museum

Heath Robinson exhibition
at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...

, Liverpool, 2004
SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: Fairy Tale Illustrations of William Heath Robinson

W. H. Robinson's illustrations for Andersen's Fairy Tales (1913)
an
Heath Robinson's Book of Goblins
(Golden Age Children's Book Illustrators Gallery) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, W. Heath 1872 births 1944 deaths English cartoonists English illustrators Artists from the London Borough of Haringey Artists from the London Borough of Islington People from Hornsey People from Islington (district) People from Pinner 19th-century British illustrators Illustrators of fairy tales 20th-century British illustrators Burials at East Finchley Cemetery British magazine illustrators British magazine cartoonists The New Yorker cartoonists Art competitors at the 1932 Summer Olympics People educated at Islington Proprietary School