Trew, Cecil G

About

Cecil Gwendolen Russell worked under her first married name, Cecil G Trew. She did much of her work for A & C Black, and is probably best known now in equine circles as the illustrator of two of Primrose Cumming’s Silver Eagle books. She was as much at home drawing dogs as horses and people, and illustrated several dog books. Cecil G Trew wrote and illustrated her own books. Most were instructional books on drawing, but she also wrote two pony books (possibly three; once I have tracked down a copy of the third I will edit this as necessary).

Cecil G Trew was also a regular contributor to the earliest Pony Club Annuals, providing a series of illustrated articles on equine anatomy, and how to draw horses. Later annuals included articles based on her book The Accoutrements of the Riding Horse. These drawings in particular are beautiful, and the two shown here are from Bridle and Bit.

It seems likely that Cecil Trew rode most of her life. The dedication of Wild Horse of the West, printed in 1937, mentions Prunes, ‘A plucky little horse and a trusted friend who got me out of many a scrape in that most delectable country.’ The photograph shows her riding in Sweden, at the family home of her second husband, Captain Rolf Ehrenborg.

Cecil was born in 1897. Her father was Assistant Master at Clifton College, Bristol, and she was one of three. Her brother, Harley, was killed in WW1 at the Battle of Loos in 1915, and her sister Vivien became a noted archaeologist in Cornwall. Cecil trained at the Bristol Municipal School of Art (later the Royal West of England Academy).

Her work work was extraordinary. In WW1, she was a Red Cross nurse in Bristol, but she also did surgical drawing in Bristol Royal Infirmary, as photography at that time could not show the detail required. She continued to work as a surgical illustrator, and was the only surgical artist in the British Army during WW2 (as shown in the photograph above). She spent three months in France in 1945 making detailed drawings of the operations being performed in field stations, and wrote a book about her experiences, What Are You Doing Here?

During World War I, Cecil had met an American doctor, Niel Trew, who had come to provide medical support to the war effort. They married in 1918, and moved to Los Angeles, where Niel had his practice. Cecil did not give up her work: she illustrated four books while living in America, all published in 1929. They had three children, but Niel died in 1929 and the family returned to Bristol. Cecil carried on illustrating and writing. She also worked for the Natural History Museum and was said to have taught art at the Imperial Service College in Windsor (this information appears on the dustjackets of her books, but has not been substantiated by the college).

Cecil met and married Captain Rolf Ehrenborg, the son of the Swedish Consul in Liverpool. They separated in 1953, and Cecil died on 4 April 1958.

Finding the books

The books she illustrated are reasonably easy to find, and not usually monstrously expensive.

Links and sources
Bob Forrest: a full, and excellent, account of Cecil G Trew’s life
Photographs of Cecil G Trew and her work (as referred to in the article above)
Many thanks to Michael Mather, Cecil G Trew’s grandson, for biographical information and the photographs
The British Library
Cecil G Trew: Bridle and Bit (The Pony Club Annual 5, 1954)
Pony Club Book 8, 1958