Painter, draughtsman, printmaker, photographer, teacher and bibliophile with strong left-wing convictions, born and died in Brighton, Sussex, brother of the artist Percy Horton. He studied at Brighton School of Art, 1919–23, in 1924 moving to London to work for the sculptor William Aumonier. From 1920 until his death Horton was a member of the Communist Party, and from 1924–6 he was politically very active, working part-time for the book dealer Birrell & Garnett (his collection of Russian children’s books went to the Victoria & Albert Museum, his games, puzzles and toys to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth) and studied in the evenings at St Martin’s School of Art. Horton gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art under William Rothenstein, 1926–9, and visited Paris.