Peter Ellenshaw was born William Samuel Cook Ellenshaw (but his mother preferred the name “Peter” so that is what he was called the rest of his life) in London, England, on May 24, 1913. He was raised in Essex, a city that was in the path of the German zeppelins during World War I. As Peter once recalled, “My mother put us (Peter and his two sisters) under the kitchen table while the zeppelins were overhead and gave us pencils and paper to draw with,” and an artist was born. Peter was not a strong child and was left to his own amusements, so he spent a lot of time drawing. By the time he was twenty, he was working at a garage during the day and copying the Old Masters at night. […]
