Edgar Ainsworth

Edgar Ainsworth (1905-1975) was a British artist, poster designer and magazine illustrator, who is known for the drawings he made at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the months following the camps' liberation by the British Army in 1945.

Biography Ainsworth studied at the Royal College of Art in the late 1920s and exhibited at the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club. In 1929 Ainsworth painted friezes at the Imperial Institute building in London. Ainsworth designed posters for the General Post Office, Shell and the Empire Marketing Board but was increasing drawn to journalism. He produced illustrated articles for the magazines Leader and Liliput before joining Picture Post. In due course, Ainswoth was appointed to the post of Art Editor for Picture Post.

During World War Two, Ainsworth continued to work for Picture Post and also served as a war correspondent and accompanied the American 7th Army on their advance across Europe in 1945. Several of the drawings made by Ainsworth in Belsen were purchased by the War Artists' Advisory Committee and are now held by the Imperial War Museum. Ainsworth also commissioned the author and artist Mervyn Peake to visit Belsen for Picture Post.

After the War, Ainsworth spent time in the Middle East and, during 1948, reported on the civil war in the then Mandatory Palestine for Picture Post. Several of these pictures were also included in the 1949 exhibition Six Artists Abroad, promoted by the Association of Industrial Artists.

Ainsworth's death was registered at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.