On the front of the 1st edition of Pennine Underground (1947) and of Britain Underground (1953) is a drawing (rendered in green and black) of a rope ladder hanging down a pitch. The drawing is signed G.W.

Does anyone know who G.W. was or is?

The Third edition (1959) and the fourth edition (1965) have a different drawing (1959 rendered in green and black, 1965 in red and black). There does not appear to be any signature on these. Does anyone know who drew this drawing?

Thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Graham Proudlove

Geoff Workman would be my guess, he started caving in 1945

I wonder if it was Godfrey Wilson, who I think was involved with CRO from the earliest days (so would have been thick with the likes of Reg Hainsworth & Norman Thornber) and (I think I remember rightly) was an artist and worked for Dalesman (probably in the office at Clapham).

Graham - send me a normal email if you want to follow this up. I might be able to suggest a couple of people likely to be able to tell you more.

P.S. I don't think Geoff Workman does email - but if you wanted to get an email to him to ask about this I might just have a cunning plan.

Have done a little digging around and I'm increasingly confident that your "G.W." is Godfrey Wilson, who was from Stainforth. He was a founder member of the Cave Rescue Organisation (in 1935) and one of its first four "wardens" (the others being Tot Lord, Reg Hainsworth and Norman Thornber). I think Thornber lived at Settle. The connections between Wilson & Thornber were therefore very strong - and for a good 12 years before the first P.U. appeared.

Mark told us that Geoff Workman started caving in 1945 (I didn't know that, so thanks Mark). I wonder if he would therefore have become sufficiently well known to Thornber, by the time the 1947 P.U. was being prepared, to have been invited to contribute a drawing? (Bear in mind that if it was published in 1947 it would have been pretty much ready before then - perhaps in 1946. The great shortage of paper immediately after the war quite possibly delayed publication.)

I still think Wilson was an artist (although I've not been able to confirm that as I type) but I think the balance of probability is very much that he is your "G.W."

Pitlamp said:

Have done a little digging around and I'm increasingly confident that your "G.W." is Godfrey Wilson, who was from Stainforth. He was a founder member of the Cave Rescue Organisation (in 1935) and one of its first four "wardens" (the others being Tot Lord, Reg Hainsworth and Norman Thornber). I think Thornber lived at Settle. The connections between Wilson & Thornber were therefore very strong - and for a good 12 years before the first P.U. appeared.

Click to expand...

I think you're right, Pitlamp.

Mark told us that Geoff Workman started caving in 1945 (I didn't know that, so thanks Mark).

Click to expand...

Geoff briefly discusses his early career in this interview in the Audio Archive. Geoff was only 18 when PU was first published, and is most unlikely to have moved in the right circles at that time.

Here are the drawings in question:



Taken from this page:

http://cavemaps.org/guidebooks.htm

There is a certain Settle resident who is very knowledgable about moths in Scoska Cave and knew Norman Thornber personally. Graham - you'll know who I mean and you have his contact details; it's worth contacting him to discuss your project.