Charles Desmond Manning (1925 – 1977) was a local teacher and freelance artist, who exhibited and sold his work within the Yorkshire region.
He was born in Sheffield in 1925 and saw active war service as an air gunner in the RAF in 180 squadron, 2 TAF stationed in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.
Photographs:
Left: Charles with his son, Mick.
Right: Charles with his son, Mark.
Both Mark and Mick became professional artists; see links below.
After the war, Charles began teaching and supplemented his salary with weekly nature articles for the Bury Free Press illustrated with scraper-board (see example below).
Moving home to Yorkshire in 1961 he served at various Keighley middle schools through the 1960s and 70s including Bronte and the original Hartington, eventually becoming headmaster of Highfield School. He specialised in what was then known as ‘remedial education’ and became a popular teacher, partly because he used his inherent artistic skills in the classroom as part of his philosophy that art should be used to inform and educate. He created wall friezes and produced word and image fact sheets (reproduced in blue on the old ‘spirit duplicator’); see example below. This aided his pupils understanding of texts such as The Wind in the Willows or Treasure Island.
‘Wind in the Willows’ Teaching Aid
In his free time Charles painted in oils and watercolour, as well as working in black and white. His pen and ink ‘Bronte district’ postcards and calendar, for example, views sold well in Haworth shops in the 1970s and can still be found online as collectors’ items. He also taught art at evening classes for adults in Haworth.
Haworth Church, postcard.
Top Withins. Oil on Board
His sons, Mark Manning and Mick Manning, followed in their father’s artistic footsteps to become successful professional artists, writers and illustrators.