Painter, muralist, printmaker, illustrator and teacher (in the 1940s some work were signed E James Malthouse), born in Erdington, Birmingham. Studied under Bernard Fleetwood-Walker at Edward VI Grammar School there and at Birmingham College of Art, 1931–7. Helped Fleetwood-Walker with his mural for Chelmsford Town Hall, 1937. Other murals included Wales Gas Board and University Hall, both Cardiff and 1963. Malthouse lectured at Cardiff College of Art, 1944–73. He was a founder of SWG, 1949, founder of the 56 Group in 1956, associate of RWA from 1959 and was elected to the Printmakers’ Council in 1971. Malthouse showed his first picture at RBSA in 1931, other group appearances including AIA, WAC and Royal National Eisteddfod. His work went through various Surrealist, figurative and, from 1959, entirely non-figurative phases.