Frank Newbould was born in Bradford on 24 September 24 1887, the son of J M Newbould, a chemist. He studied at Bradford College of Art before becoming a black and white illustrator and poster artist. In 1909 a Frank Parkinson Newbould designed an advertisement for Vimant gas mantles of Bradford, registered at Stationer’s Hall, now in the PRO. This was possibly this Frank Newbould. There is no record of First World War posters by Newbould, but in 1919 he designed ‘The Call of the East’, a recruiting poster for the RAF. Inter-war he designed many posters, particularly for the Railways (including London Transport), and the Orient Line. His work was ‘stylistically indebted to the Beggarstaff Brothers’, and he was renowned for his brightly coloured work.
Married to Marion Jane Thomson, Newbould was a silver and bronze medallist for poster design, South Kensington National Competition, also first-class honours for design, South Kensington. In the early years of the Second World War, Newbould designed a recruiting poster for the Auxiliary Fire Service. In 1942 Newbould joined the War Office as assistant to Games, Abram, where he produced eleven posters, including four for the ‘Your Britain, Fight for it Now’, in the tradition of ‘this England’, the peacetime English scene, for which he had been famous with his LNER travel posters. In 1943 he designed posters for the ‘Make Your Money Provide the Driving Power’ for the GPO.
Information taken from: Darracott, J. and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1981 (1972), p.48, London Transport Museum Database, accessed February 2000, Livingston, A. and Livingston, I., Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers, 1992, p.144, Frank Newbould’s Strong New Poster’, Advertiser’s Weekly, November 20 1941, p.183, ‘G.P.O. Follows up Appeal to Public’, Advertiser’s Weekly, August 26 1943, p.264