Graham Sumner

Graham Sumner was born in 1958 and studied illustration at the North East Wales Institute in Wrexham. He has written and illustrated a number of articles for Military Illustrated and Ancient Warfare magazines and wrote the successful Brassey's book "Roman Army: Wars Of The Empire" He has also written and illustrated highly popular books for Osprey on Roman Military Clothing, illustrating a third in the series and recently wrote a comprehensive guide on Roman Military Dress for Tempus books.

In addition he has illustrated a number of books on Roman archaeology in Britain including, "Roman Chester" and "Roman Middlewich" by Tim Strickland; "Roman Britian" by Plantagenet Somerset Fry; Arms And Armour Of The Imperial Roman Soldier by Raffaele D'Amato and "Roman Villas And The Countryside" by Guy de la Bedoyere. Recently Graham has been illustrating the 'Roman Conquest' series for Pen and Sword Books, working with other authors including Ross Cowan and Nic Fields. He has also completed some new interpretation panels featuring Denbigh Castle in North Wales, Castleshaw Roman site near Manchester and produced some new figurative illustrations enlarged to life size for both Tyne-mouth Abbey and Sutton Hoo.

Graham's artwork has also appeared in exhibitions at The Grosvenor Museum, Chester; The Archaeological Museum, Durham; Ribchester Museum; Santi Banchieri Re, Ravenna; Musee Du Historia, Tarragona; PAM Velzeke; Amphitheatre Museum, Grand; Musee Gallo Romain, Saint Romain-en-Gal, Vindonissa Museum and the world famous Vindolanda Museum on Hadrian's Wall. Other illustration commissions have been used on interpretation panels at Moresby Roman fort in Cumbria and Vindolanda.

When we declared Haltwhistle as The Centre of Britain, Graham provided the illustrations of a Roman Legionary and Border Reiver, used in our crest. So impressed were we of his work we have commissioned illustrations of other “Characters from the Centre of Britain” which are displayed in the Reception area. Latest being King John who granted Haltwhistle’s Market Charter in 1306. Other Characters will appear from time to time.

For nearly twenty years Graham was a full member of The Ermine Street Guard the respected Roman military re-enactment society taking part in many displays throughout Britain and Europe. Since 1990 Graham has been a member of The Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors.