Archibald Bertram Webb: Illustrations for adventure novels.

Archibald Bertram Webb was born in Kennington, Kent, on 4 March 1887, the son of  journalist Thomas Waters Webb and his wife Emily (nee Tutt). He grew up in St. Albans and Camberwell, London, and studied under W. P. Robins at St. Martin’s School of Art as well as taking night classes at the City and Guilds of London Art School.
Webb was a prolific freelance illustrator for periodicals in 1905-14, contributing to The Critic (which his father edited), Pall Mall Magazine, Photography and Focus, John Bull, The Quiver, Sunday at Home and The Sketch. He also produced illustrations for childrens’ story papers – The Captain, Chums, Girls’ Realm and Little Folks – and annuals such as The Empire Annual and Herbert Strang’s Annual. His work was often signed with the abbreviated Arch Webb.
Suffering from the effects of rheumatic fever, he was advised to migrate to Australia for his heath. He arrived in Freemantle in May 1915 and worked for the next two years as a commercial artist and teaching assistant at Perth Technical School. In 1917 he joined the Department of Agriculture as a clerk in the Agricultural Bank of Western Australia, Narrogin. He returned to Perth and the technical school as an assistant art master in 1921.
Here he continued painting watercolours – particularly around the Swan River near Nedlands, where he lived, and produced woodcut designs in the Japanese style which were favourably reviewed in the 1920s.
He taught a course in fine arts at the University of Western Australia in 1927-32 before succeeding J. W. R. Linton as head of the art department at Perth Technical School in 1932.
He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1934 and resigned his post, travelling with his wife and family back to England in the hope of finding a cure. During this time, his work was exhibited at the Fine Art Society in London and he produced posters for Great Western Railway and wallpapers for John Line & Sons.

With his health failing, Webb returned to Perth in 1937 and opened an art school where he continued to teach and show his work until his death, of a cerebral haemorrhage, on 11 June 1944.
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, (MUP), 2002
Webb illustrated several boys' adventure novels written by William Henry Giles Kingston and other authors.

The Three Lieutenants, 1876

HERBERT STRANG: PALM TREE ISLAND

Frontispiece

HERBERT STRANG: ON THE SPANISH MAIN, 1907

Frontispiece

"The Commandant threw up his arms and pitched backward; Dennis dropped his weapon and caught him as he fell"

 "Dennis flung his bombs into the space, and tremendous explosions ensued"

 "Before the Germans realised what was happening, there was an ugly bit of bayonet work"

"Nothing could check the victorious rush"