Major-General J.C.T.Willis
I was intrigued when I heard that Major-General John Christopher Temple Willis painted just four postcards for Salmon of Sevenoaks so I decided to find out something of his life and whether these cards were still available at Fairs.
He was born at ...Weymouth, Dorset on ... His mother was ... and his father, who registered the birth was ... Paymaster in the Royal Navy. At the time of the 1901 census his mother was the head of household and there was a living-in nanny with the .-months old baby who was known by his second name Christopher. His father, who was later to become the Paymaster-in-Chief of the Royal Navy was not there - presumably a posting away from home.
We visited the Postcard Fair at Shepton Mallet this year and I managed to find all four postcards which follow:
 No. 4369 A Corner of the Harbour, Brixham |
 No. 4370 The Harbour, Brixham |
 No. 4371 The Strand, Brixham |
 No. 4372 The Inner Harbour, Brixham |
Salmon currently produce small recipe books and two of them have pictures by J.C.T. Willis:
 Sutton Valence Windmill, Kent by J.C.T. Willis Printed on the cover of the Favourite Biscuit Recipes book |
 Blakeney Quay by J.C.T. Willis Printed inside the Favourite Norfolk Recipes book |
JCT Willis was educated at Uppingham, then entered Sandhurst on leaving school in 19.. He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on ... Promotions are recorded as follows:
Promotions
He seems to have found time to paint watercolours while in the Army. In the 1930s it was mentioned to the Royal Ordnance that his paintings could be used as covers for some of their maps. Five were published and repeated at later dates too. The following are my postcards which show these maps:
Postcards of maps
I have tried to find copies of his paintings on the internet but with no luck. I have seen lists of some of his watercolours but they are usually on change of ownership at auctions and when it comes to showing us what they look like it suggests that because copyright is unknown they can't do this. It is apparent from some of the titles that some were painted while he was abroad in the Far East - ..., ..., etc.Other paintings are all around the UK
The photograph and some of the information above was found in the book Map Cover Art by John Paddy Browne, ISBN..., published by the Royal Ordnance. The postcards of covers were also published by them.
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May 2007