Ernest Worrall

Ernest Worrall (1898 – 1972) was an English painter and teacher. Born in London, he served in World War I and graduated from the Royal College of Art before moving to Grimsby. He is remembered for a series of paintings depicting the impact of World War II on the town. His work was exhibited in the Royal Academy fourteen times, and has more recently been displayed in the National Memorial Arboretum in Lichfield in response to a successful exhibition in a centre in Cleethorpes.

Biography Worrall was born in London in 1898. He served as a machine gunner during World War I. Having been captured by German forces in 1917, he escaped in the following year prior to the end of the war. In 1931, he graduated from the Royal College of Art. He moved to Grimsby in 1932, working as a teacher at Wintringham Grammar School.

During World War II, Worrall was a member of the Home Guard. In 1943, he was commissioned by Grimsby Borough Council to record the impact of the conflict on the town in paintings. In 1943 and 1944, he created a series of over 20 works depicting a range of scenes in Grimsby.

Worrall continued to teach at Wintringham after the war, retiring in the 1960s. He died in 1972. Later in 2009, Worrall's son Richard, who saw the pictures for the first time at the Cleethorpes exhibition, helped to arrange another display of the paintings, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas in Staffordshire.