r.j. walsh, the Painting postman
The postcard artist R.J. Walsh (1893-1991) had a rather unusual profession, for an artist. According to the Watford Observer, he worked his entire life, until he retired at the age of 65, as a GPO messenger and postman. But R.J. Walsh, who was born in Battersea and spent most of his adult life in Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire), was also a very talented painter and indeed cartoonist, who is said to have contributed drawings to several national newspapers.
The Watford Observer, which provided the only account of R.J. Walsh’s life that I was able to find anywhere, suggests that he only started drawing cartoons after the war (in which he served) and after taking evening classes at Putney School of Art in London, but he also drew postcards, some of which appeared as early as 1909, when he was only sixteen years old, and they are as accomplished as his later work.
Oddly, many of his earlier postcards were published by Munk in Vienna (M.M. Vienne). Walsh initially signed his work R.J.W. and later also, for unknown reasons, as “Stick” Walsh.
