Employer British Railways Education Westminster School Died June 29, 1987 | Role Writer Name Cuthbert Hamilton-Ellis | |
Full Name Cuthbert Hamilton-Ellis Born 29 June 1909 ( 1909-06-29 ) Known for Railway painter and author Books The Trains We Loved, Railway Art | ||
Cuthbert Hamilton-Ellis (29 June 1909 – 29 June 1987) was an English railway writer and painter. He was an Associate of the Institute of Locomotive Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
He attended Westminster school and is reported to have briefly been at Oxford. He published the first of his 36 books, mostly on railway subjects, at the age of 21.
During 1940 Hamilton-Ellis was sent to Switzerland by MI6 under the guise of reporting for Modern Transport to organize saboteurs, but is reported not to have made contact with his handlers.
Hamilton Ellis covered a broad range of railway subjects in his books, the best-known of which is The trains we loved (Allen & Unwin, 1947). As a knowledgeable railwayman he appeared in the 1968 TV documentary 4472: Flying Scotsman and appeared twice in the BBC TV game show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? in railway themed episodes.
He has paintings in the National Railway Museum, the Royal Logistic Corps Museum and the Museum of Island Railway History on the Isle of Wight. The National Portrait Gallery holds two portraits of him, both taken in the 1960s