I have always had an interest in travel posters from Africa. This probably comes from my childhood travels to East Africa in mid-1960’s living in Malawi 1965 – 1966. When living there we traveled to many countries in Africa. I remember I saw the SAS Africa posters by Otto Nielsen on the wall in a house of some Danish friends in Malawi.
Many years later in my hunt for African travel posters I have come across many beautiful posters signed A. W. Baylis but I have never found out any more about the person behind the signature.
Who was A. W. Baylis? He designed so many beautiful travel posters!
It's been a long process without finding any clues. I have searched a lot on the internet to find his biography without any luck. Then I remebered I'm a user of ancestry.com researching my own ancestors. What if I try an unorthodox search using ancestry.com?
BINGO! Mystery solved!
After many different search methods mainly focusing on Zimbabwe, former Southern-Rhodesia, I found clues on Baylis. A person called Baylis with an open ancestry tree had an ancestor called Arthur William Baylis listed with an occupation as lithographing artist..
I guess not many people called A. W. Baylis was working in Rhodesia as a lithographing artist in 1930-1940's.
A. W. Baylis full name is Arthur William Baylis born in Newbury, Berkshire, England 14th September 1894.
He emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1925, Marriage in 1929.
Died in Southern-Rhodesia in 1946.
If anyone have more info to add to his Bio, please let me know.
Dag Suul - mail@posterteam.com
