NEREID MONUMENT FROM XANTHOS, LYCIA AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM 1988

Henry William Collins was a painter, graphic designer and teacher, born at 25 Bergholt Road, Colchester in 1910, the son of Henry Percy Collins, a gas fitter and his wife Marie née Beagley, who married at Colchester in 1909. Henry studied at Colchester School of Art and the Central School, London and in 1935 started his career by designing a poster for London Underground entitled Cheap Return Fares printed by Waterlow & Sons Ltd (see link below).

During World War II he served with the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers, and after the war worked as a freelance designer, establishing himself as a professional artist.  After a commission by the Central Office of Information for the Festival of Britain in 1951 (1), he was commissioned for a series of exhibition designs and murals together with his wife, fellow artist Joyce Millicent Pallot (q.v.) whom he met at Colchester School of Art in 1932 and married at Tendring, Essex, in 1938. Henry and Joyce were to live and work together for the next 56 years. Together, in the 1970s, they worked on a large number of concrete and mosaic murals (2) for public and commercial buildings. They signed these collectively as “Henry and Joyce Collins”. Some of the murals can be seen in Colchester and in other locations in the United Kingdom (see list below)(3). There are some in the USA, Japan and Belgium as well (see below).

Collins was also an educator, teaching part-time in the Graphic Design Department of St Martin’s School of Art, London, for 25 years as well as at Colchester School of Art and various adult education centres. In 1946 with John Nash (q.v.) and Cedric Morris (q.v.) Collins founded Colchester Art Society, for which he designed the logo, which has been used ever since. He was made an Honorary Member in 1972. He also designed the poster for Colchester Art Society’s first exhibition at Colchester Castle where he exhibited with his wife Joyce Pallot. Collins lived in Lexden Road (No 195), Colchester, with his wife Joyce. They had a son, Nicolas. Collins died in July 1994 at Colchester. A memorial exhibition was held at Essex County Libraries in 1995-1996.