Gerry & Alma Moore
It is with deep regret that we have to advise you of the death of Gerry Moore on the 30th January 2010 and also of his wife Alma on 16th June 2010.

Gerry spent his life researching Patterson and writing many books and articles on him and he will be deeply missed by his family and friends and also by the cycling community that knew him.
Alma, who was also heavily involved in Gerry's love of patterson and cycling will also be deeply missed by her family and friends.

I'm sorry that i can't write any more than this, but as a loving son and step son it is currently a difficult time.

I am hoping to keep this site running and add the many prints that both Gerry and Alma wanted this site to include, so keep checking in and anyone can contact me at the email address on the contacts page

I will miss you both dearly.

Love to you both

Colin

JIM WILLIS
It is with deep regret that we have to advise you of the death of Jim Willis on the 2nd November 2008. His passing was not unexpected, as he had been ill for some time, but nevertheless it was a shock to us all, especially his wife Jan. Jim was founder member and secretary of the much lamented Frank Patterson Appreciation Society, helped organise exhibitions all over the country and was the publisher of six Patterson picture books, included the Patterson biography. These books are all now out of print and fetch astronomical prices when they come up for sale. Jim will be sorely missed, his lifelong passion for cycling and the work of Frank Patterson gave inspiration to hundreds of people all over the world.

We will miss you Jim.

Gerry & Alma

Many admirers of Frank Patterson’s cycling work are unaware that he produced hundreds of illustrations for other publications. Also Temple Press, the publishers of the weekly magazine Cycling ran many other titles, such as The Light Car & Cyclecar, Motor Cycling and The Motor (illustrations from these can be seen in the Gallery section). Although he was under contract to Temple Press, Patterson was a free-lance illustrator and therefore was able to take on any work that came his way.
In the 1890’s when Patterson was still a young man, he illustrated sea stories written by his father a former naval officer. The yarns appeared in Boys Own magazine, a publication that took his work up until the 1940’s. He also produced drawings of furniture for several top-class “house and gardens” type publications (examples of these will feature in future newsletters).
His mastery in illustrating a bicycle in motion and romantic drawings of the English countryside was a skill that stayed with him into late old age. Although born with artistic talent Patterson had to develop his craft and looking at his early drawings one can see that he needed help in refining this most difficult form of artistic representation. He was taught how to draw bicycles by fellow Cycling artists George Moore and Percy Kemp.
When I was editor of the newsletter of the Frank Patterson Appreciation Society from 1988 to 1993 I received many letters from artists who had known Patterson. Several letters were received after the society closed, so have never been read by the many fans of the artist. One in particular has relevance to the theme of this article as Patterson passed on his bicycle drawings skills to a young struggling illustrator. The letter was from Harry Sheldon and dated 27th March 1994.

…….it was my employer, a very fine illustrator, who was patient enough to teach me the finer points of illustration, who supplied a copy of “Cycling”. He said, ‘Harry, the figures are fine and the bicycles are very good, but the figures don’t look as if they are sitting on them’, that was the point at which he said, ‘There’s a chap called Patterson who is an expert at it, I’ll get you a copy of “Cycling” and you will see what I mean’. That did the trick and I had no problems after that. Some time later, I don’t recall why, but I was in the Midland Hotel in Manchester with my boss Arnold and who should walk in but Frank Patterson! My boss introduced me and we had a long chat about drawing bicycles. In those day life in the Manchester studio was hard, I would work every day until about 7pm, then rattle down on the penny tram to the Salford School of art where I worked under old man L S Lowry.

The Frank Patterson Society have the largest and most comprehensive archive on the artist  in the world and we hope, over time, to publish in the newsletter a selection that lovers of his work will find interesting.

Gerry Moore July 2007.