Artist, notably a humorous draughtsman, and designer, born in Cambridge, where he attended the School of Art and had first work published in the local daily paper and Granta, 1935–9. Served in Army, 1939–46, being a Japanese prisoner-of-war, 1942–5. Began freelancing for national publications in 1946, including News Chronicle, Punch and New Yorker. From 1995, Searle contributed to the French newspaper Le Monde, politics and business corruption among his targets. After a first marriage to Kaye Webb, by whom he had a son and daughter, Searle left England for France in 1961, marrying Monica Koenig in 1967. They lived in Provence. He had collaborated with Webb on Paris Sketchbook in 1950 and 1957, one of many collaborations, particularly on books, in his prolific career.
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Another was the volume Searle & Searle, with Monica Searle, in 2001. Searle’s extensive publications included Forty Drawings, 1946; Hurrah for St Trinian’s!, 1948; The Rake’s Progress, 1955; Searle in the Sixties, 1964; Searle’s Cats, 1967; Ronald Searle, 1978; Ronald Searle in Perspective, 1984; and To the Kwai – and Back, 1986. Among films designed by Searle were the animation sequence in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, 1965. Five St Trinian’s films were produced, the last being The Wildcats of St Trinian’s, 1980. Searle designed medals for the French Mint and British Art Medal Society and was made a Royal Designer for Industry, 1988. He had extensive international shows, beginning with Batsford Gallery, 1947, a series at Leicester Galleries from 1948, later ones including Imperial War Museum and British Museum, 1986, Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, 1987, and Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1987–8. Chris Beetles Ltd held a Searle retrospective in 2003. Tate Gallery, Imperial War Museum, British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum and foreign collections hold examples.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
