Poster designer and painter, born in Bristol, son of a master mariner turned artist who was assisted by Tom. Purvis’ father financed a first term at Camberwell School of Art, scholarships keeping him there for three-and-a-half years. He also studied with Degas and Sickert. Spent six years with the advertising agency Mather & Crowther, then two at The Avenue Press to learn practical lithographic printing while freelancing. In World War I served in Flanders as a captain in the Artists’ Rifles and was wounded. Then worked for Pan and London Magazine and developed his distinctive poster style – flat areas of brilliant adjacent colour with no dividing line – that earned him much money and the title The King of the Hoardings. Did his finest designs for London North Eastern Railway, Shell, Yardley, Aquascutum, London Underground and Austin Reed.