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Old Warwickians

David Measures (WS 1945-55)

David Guy Measures died in 2011, aged 73, due to complications from leukaemia.

He was born in the Old Toll Cottage, just by Warwick Castle and the River Avon, where as a youngster he spent endless hours exploring, swimming and rowing. As he grew up he developed a passion for nature, expressing it through art, gaining especial fame for his painting of butterflies and being seen as the first artist to paint them flying in their natural habitat. He also made many sketches of local bird life, taking pains to identify the different species' songs and accompanying each drawing with their birdsong in musical notation.

After school and study in Leamington, Bournemouth and the Slade School of Art in London, David took up a lecturing post at Nottingham College of Art (now Nottingham Trent University) in 1964, settling with his wife Christine (also an artist) in Southwell. His reputation in the world of natural history grew and he progressed to drawing landscapes, using his fingertips and spit. His importance was reflected by detailed obituaries in the national press.

His painting of the Head Master's chair in the School Chapel is on loan to the school from fellow OW Don Hanson. It hangs in the Portcullis Room at School.