Ron Beckers was born on 15 February 1937.
Before moving to the British American Banknote Copmpany, Beckers worked for Bradbury Wilkinson & Co, where he started
off as a vignette engraver. During the 1950s and 1960s, he engraved a number of
vignettes for various British Commonwealth definitive sets. The first known of
these was the vignette of the 3d Fiji definitive from the 1954 set. His last known
ones are the ½c, 5c and 15c vignettes of the 1966 Antigua definitive set.
Beckers drew attention to him for his fast work and his
ability to draw portraits. So Robert Godbehear started mentoring him and turned
him into a portrait engraver. His talent for portrait work was even more impressive
than his vignette work had been, but can only be seen on a number of banknotes
he engraved.
In his turn, Beckers would later go on to mentor the stamp
engraver Christopher Broadbridge who would also become a portrait engraver. Beckers would also train the Canadian engraver Yves Baril for a little while.
Ron Beckers passed away on 20 August 2013.
You will find Ron Beckers' database HERE.