The Art of Ionicus, Joshua Armitage of Hoylake
By Mark Gorton 26th Jun 2022
Above: a gallery of ten paintings by 'Ionicus'
82 years ago, Joshua Charles Armitage volunteered for the Royal Navy and spent time on minesweepers before becoming a gunnery instructor in Liverpool.
But it is not for his war service that this member of Britain's Greatest Generation is remembered. Joshua, otherwise known as Ionicus, was a wonderfully talented artist and illustrator whose beautifully crafted and detailed drawings appeared in Punch magazine for 40 years.
Joshua was born in Hoylake in 1913, and died there in 1998. After attending Liverpool School of Art, he taught at the Wallasey School of Art.
World War Two was still on when his first cartoon appeared in Punch, on 29 March 1944, and he opted for a nom de plume to distinguish his light-hearted work from his more serious oil painting.
Because the cartoon contained a couple of ionic columns enjoyed by the ancient Greeks, he chose Ionicus, a name which echoes his keen interest in architecture past and present, as revealed by his skill in depicting urban backgrounds.
Joshua was a prolific illustrator of children's books, and the creator of 50 covers for the P.G. Wodehouse paperbacks published by Penguin.
But his main hobby was golf, to which he often turned his talent, and given his long membership of Royal Liverpool Golf Club, it is no surprise that he captured Hoylake life in his inimitable fashion.
The Club is lucky to have examples of his work on display, some of which are presented here, and which speak eloquently, amusingly - and beautifully - for themselves.
Incidentally, The Open championship returns to Royal Liverpool next year, and you don't have to play golf to enjoy one of the world's great sporting events.
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