Kenneth and Sheila Graham - Father and Daughter

Kenneth Graham (1900 - 1979), was born in Yorkshire, the only son of school teacher Thomas Graham (who taught at Holgate Grammar School, Barnsley) and his wife Lavinia. 

The family, along with his sister Dorothy, moved from Leeds to Barnsley in 1911 living at 45 Kensington Road, Barnsley. Kenneth took an interest in painting from an early age, and it is reported that he was painting by the age of sixteen, exhibiting and selling work locally. On leaving school Graham trained as a Colliery Surveyor later becoming a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force in the Great War, he married his first wife Leonora Armitage in Barnsley in 1925. Once settled he started to work at Wood Brothers Glass Company at Hoyle Mill where he soon became Chief Designer. He was widely recognised as a fine designer.

In 1932 Kenneth produced a large number (believed to be over forty) pen and ink sketches of Barnsley and the surrounding district. These were published in the Barnsley Chronicle the same year, a number of the originals are in the Experience Barnsley Museum collection. Many depict landmarks, public houses and quaint alleyways of Barnsley between the wars, and are of interest to anyone interested in Barnsley’s history. Favourites include images of Barnsley Market, the Lamproom Theatre and views of Shambles Street. Throughout the 1930’s Graham exhibited regularly with Barnsley and District Art Society as well as in other local societies in Wakefield and Sheffield. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy in their ‘British Artists in Industry’ exhibition in 1934. Four fascinating paintings depicting glass blowers can be found in the Cannon Hall Museum Collection in Cawthorne. A small number of images can also be seen in the collection at Cawthorne Jubilee Museum.

In 1938 Kenneth left Wood Brothers to take up the position of Creative Manager at Coty’s Perfumery in London, designing many iconic perfume bottles. After serving in the Second World War he opened the Da Vinci Gallery in Duke Street, St. James’, London, working as a picture restorer. He wrote for various magazines including The Glass Container and The Glass Packer and published his own magazine The Collector. Later in life he lived in West Kensington and in the 1970s he retired to Suffolk. He died at Bury St. Edmund’s in 1979. Work by Kenneth Graham can sometimes be found at auctions. In 2012 several paintings were sold at Bonhams. The people of Barnsley will remember his talent via the work he left behind and will appreciate a glimpse into a very different Barnsley from days gone by. The creativity ran in the family, his daughter Sheila Graham became an accomplished artist and costume designer for films such as Captain Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck. 

Sheila Graham (1927 – 2009)

Sheila Graham was born in 1927 in Stairfoot Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The only child of Kenneth Graham and Leonora Armitage who married in Barnsley in 1925. A creative child, Sheila loved to draw and had a passion for art, she attended Grove School near Locke Park in Barnsley where she won awards for her drawings of ballets, a childhood passion that sent her onto a lifelong love of the theatre and the creative industries. When the family headed to London, she studied at the Maris Convent school founded by the Marist Sisters who travelled from France to England and established the first UK Marist Convent in Spitalfields. She then went on to study at St Martins School of Art, the world-renowned arts and design college where her love of ballet continued. Drawings of the ballet dancer Robert Helpmann, featured heavily in her Saint Martin’s end of year show in 1945.

After completing her studies Sheila went on to work in Liverpool, at the Liverpool Playhouse which during the second world war, was the temporary home to the Old Vic theatre company.  Sheila also worked for the Old Vic in London for a while under the directorship of Laurence Olivier. During this period in London, she created sets and costumes for a production of As You Like It at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. Her career began to thrive, She designed the set for a number of Shakespeare productions at open air theatres in Winterset including Henry V, The Tempest and The Merry Wives of Windsor and fairy dresses for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. It is here that Sheila set herself the goal of wanting to design costumes for all Shakespeare’s plays. At the same time as working in the theatre she took up a position with the film production company Two Cities Films in 1937. Formed in 1937, it was originally a production company operating in the two cities of London and Rome which gave the company its name. Here she worked as an assistant in the art department on a salary of £4.10s per week. It was here she gained a large amount of experience working on film sets and meeting Hollywood greats including John Mills while working on the murder mystery film The October Man.    

In 1948 Sheila was appointed costume co-ordinator and started working at Pinewood studios located in the village of Iver Heath, just outside London, on films such as Fools Rush In. One of the pieces featured in the movie designed by Sheila was a beautiful wedding dress with two large bows on each hip worn by the character Pamela Dickson. This then led to a role at Walt Disney productions as the costume designer. Most notably working on the movie Treasure Island, at Denham Studios, released in July 1950. The film was the first live action Disney movie and the first screen version of Treasure Island made in colour. Sheila continued to work in film and dress stars including Greggory Peck, Dirk Bogarde and Thora Hird. Other film credits include  Captain Horatio Hornblower released in 1951, It Started in Paradise in 1952 and Appointment in London in 1953. Notably, it was the film It started in Paradise that Sheila’s big break into costume design began. Set in the heady world of Haute Couture about an ambitious dress designer, Shelia was required to design an enormous number of costumes.  

Despite great success within the film industry, Sheila always continued to go back to her first love, the theatre. Her passion for the ballet leads her to create several attractive sketches of famous dancers such as Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann and Moira Shearer made during rehearsals of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company. In the 1950s Sheila’s work was exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum for an exhibition named Exhibition of British Stage Design. She also created a number of other sketchers for her portfolio including portraits of Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Celia Johnson. In 1953 she took a step back to begin a family, marrying Hector John McLusky in Kensington. Hector was a successful artist in his own right, born in Glasgow he trained at the Slade School of Art, London and went on to create what is widely believed to be the first image of James Bond and adapted 13 James Bond stories in a daily strip cartoon for the London Daily Express. Sheila and Hector had two children together and set up home in Hertfordshire. Later they dedicated their time to running a theatre company called The Elizabethans which travelled around the country. Her son Graham has also followed in his mother’s footsteps and currently works as a lighting designer, mainly in Theatre. Sean, her younger son runs a production company in the music industry and is also an established professional drummer.

Sheila died in 2009. She will be remembered as a creative and ambitious woman who paved the way for women in theatre and film design. Examples of her work can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum including The Winter’s Tale. Most of her original costume designs from the movie It Started in Paradise are held at the BFI as part of their archives.             

With thanks to Graham Mclusky.