[3] Townsend was commissioned to create a design for the roofs of the Rolls-Royce aircraft engine factories in Derby so that they would appear to German bombers to be no more than a village.

His early education was at Abbey Street School and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a firm of architects, Wright and Thorpe (later known as T.H.

Thomas Harrison Thorpe, the junior partner, recognised Townsend's artistic ability immediately and a lifelong friendship developed between them.

Townsend's early promise was justified and eventually he left architecture altogether and embarked on a full-time course at the Heatherly School of Fine Art in London.

[4] His friends included Aubrey Beardsley, Alfred Munnings, Augustus John, and Laura Knight.

Ernest supplemented his income with design work for these magazines, in particular for The Art Workers' Quarterly, of which his brother was founder and editor.

After some time in Paris and the Netherlands, he returned to Derby, where he had a studio in Full Street, living in nearby Coxbench.

Perhaps it was this success that led to another commission from the Town for a portrait of the Libraries Museum and Art Gallery Director, William Crowther, upon his retirement in 1911.

Many more "official" commissions were to come from the Town for the remainder of Townsend's life; a succession of mayoral portraits[1] can be seen in the Council chamber today.

Edwardian Derby had its own band of regional artists: Alfred John Keene (also noted for his fine early photography), S. H. Parkin, and Frank Gresley.

[4] These and a number of lesser known but competent artists met via the Derby Sketching Club, to which Townsend was immediately attracted.

The friendship led to Ernest being invited to the Campbells' home on Havelock Road in Derby, which was then almost in the country.