Bairnsfather Sketch in Autograph Book

[rich23434565]

Hi all

I thought I'd post this here as it's quite an interesting story. I was given two autograph books by a now-deceased friend of my grandmother's back in 2003. They had belonged to the aunt of the friend's husband, who had lived in Stratford upon Avon from about 1880 until the 1930s. During this time the aunt's parents ran the Golden Lion Hotel and she used the books to collect the autographs of local dignatories and actors who were performing at the Shakespeare theatre. The larger book measured about 8 inches by 5 inches and inside I found a cartoon by Bruce Bairnsfather.

With the help of Mark Warby, we managed to find out when it was done. The cartoon is very complete and must've taken some time to draw. It's signed and dated Bruce Bairnsfather 1915, although the second autograph book has a separate signature dated 5th August 1916. Mark knew that the cartoon was the same as that which featured in The Bystander on 16th June 1915 but said that it was only the sixth cartoon of Bairnfather's to be published. It seemed strange that, with Bairnsfather not a household name in 1915, he should've executed such a detailed cartoon.

Mark Warby then suggested that what happened was this: On 5th August 1916 Bairnsfather was four weeks into a three-month period of sick leave and living a couple of miles outside Stratford. I don't know how the owner of the autograph books knew Bairnsfather but it's likely that she gave the cartoonist the book which he took home and then completed the cartoon at his leisure. He signed the cartoon 1915 as that's when it was first printed.

The cartoon is called "The Spirit of the Troops is Excellent". Along the top and bottom of the autograph version Bairnsfather has written "After many rum experiences in the Trenches...the Spirit of our Troops is excellent". I've only scanned a photocopy as the original page of the book has now been framed is hanging on the stairs (I also cropped the caption out to reduce the size of the upload).

It's a very tangible reminder of British humour at the time and, I think, a great First World War relic.

Rich

[MartH]

Marvellous!

Mart

[Jem2109]

What a wonderful find!

[Tom Morgan]

Congratulations on finding such a unique "signature" in an autograph book. The picture looks very finely-drawn. Can you give us an idea of the dimensions?

Tom

[Chris Foster]

What a wonderful thing to own !!

Kindest Regards

Chris

[rich23434565]

Congratulations on finding such a unique "signature" in an autograph book. The picture looks very finely-drawn. Can you give us an idea of the dimensions?

Tom

Hi Tom

Yes, the distance from the bottom of the Tommy's boots up to the top of the bottle is about 4.5 inches. I wish I knew how the aunt got to know Bairnsfather. Maybe he visited the hotel or she saw him around town, or maybe she knew him personally. I don't know why he went to such lengths.

Rich