Freda Lingstrom
Freda Violet Lingstrom OBE (23 July 1893 – 15 April 1989) was a BBC Television producer and executive, responsible for pioneering children's programmes in the early 1950s. She and her friend Maria Bird together created Andy Pandy and The Flower Pot Men. Early life and career Lingstrom was born in Chelsea, London, the daughter of George Lingstrom, a copperplate engraver, and Alice Clarey Anniss. Her paternal grandparents were Swedish. She attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts and became an artist. Lingstrom gained her first job at Alf Cooke's London works as a designer, where she stayed for 15 months. After periods at Carlton Studios and Norfolk, Lingstrom decided in 1922 to work on her own. Her first clients were railway companies, including the London and North Eastern Railway, the Underground Group and the Norwegian state railway. The Norwegian and Swedish government commissioned her to design Scandinavian travel material for the English market. Lingstrom also wrote two novels, The Seventh Sister (1938) and A Flower in his Hand (1939), and a book, This is Norway (1933), about the country's culture and history. Her skills as a graphic designer, illustrator and author led to her joining the editorial staff of