The Life and Times of the Inventor John Crosfield

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John Crosfield (1915-2012) CBE DSc MA

This is the story of the long life of an inventor, artist, entrepreneur and family historian born into a prominent Quaker family, as seen through his own eyes. His correspondence begins at the age of nine, when he is sent to a boarding school where he is bullied, undernourished, badly housed and frequently ill. But he learns to play the violin, to paint in oils by an inspiring art master and takes an early interest in engineering.

He describes his days at Cambridge, Munich under the Third Reich and WW2 when he develops new mines for the Admiralty in Portsmouth. We see him working in his London attic developing electronic applications that revolutionise colour printing and how he builds up a company to make and sell them to printers around the world. Forty years ahead of his time, he is the first artist to be inspired by images of nature magnified under an electron microscope. He called them ‘Micropaintings’.

His son Richard links his life to contemporary events, beginning with John’s father witnessing a Zeppelin raid over Hampstead in 1915, and his Uncle Bertie’s account of shooting down two Zeppelins over England.