St Trinian’s cartoonist Ronald Searle dies at 91
ST TRINIAN’S cartoonist Ronald Searle has died aged 91. Searle, whose drawings of the anarchic girls’ school inspired a series of films, died at home in France. A family statement said: “Ronald William Fordham Searle, born 3 March 1920, passed away peacefully in his sleep with his children, Kate and John, and his grandson, Daniel, beside him on 30 December 2011 in Draguignan, France, after a short illness.
“He requested a private cremation with no fuss and no flowers.”
Searle was born in Cambridge and started drawing at the age of five, selling his first sketch at 15.
He learned his trade in the city before the Second World War intervened and he joined up.
Searle was serving in the Royal Engineers when he sold his first St Trinian’s cartoon in 1941.