E J Wheeler

E.J. WHEELER

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

E.J. Wheeler was best-known as a member of the staff of Punch from 1880 onwards, and as the illustrator of a number of re-issues of the novels of Henry Fielding and Frederick Marryat.

He was born at 111 Praed Street, Paddington, on 9 February 1847 and baptised, as Edward Winning Wheeler (although he was later known as Edward Joseph Wheeler) at St. John’s Church, Paddington, on 28 March 1847. His father, Edward, was a railway clerk, born in London in around 1819, who had married Ann Alexander, born in London at around the same time, at St. John’s Church on 13 August 1837. They had four other children besides Edward; Hannah (1838), Jane (1845), Alfred (1849) and Henry (1852).

At the time of the 1851 census, the family was living at 38 Ferdinand Street, Kentish Town, with Edward senior working as a railway porter. There appears to be no trace of the family in 1861 census, but in 1871 they were living at 31 Dalby Street, Kentish Town, with Edward senior now a railway carrier foreman, and Edward Junior working as a portrait painter. It is not known where Edward trained as an artist.

His earliest-known work as an illustrator appeared in the magazine Belgravia in 1878. In 1880, he joined the staff of Punch, where he remained for over 20 years, producing theatrical sketches and illustrations to accompany pieces written by the magazine’s editor Francis Burnand. In 1893-1894 he illustrated a series of Sherlock Holmes parodies, The Adventures of Picklock Holes, written by R.C. Lehmann under the pseudonym of “Cunnin Toil,” which were later published in hardback.

Wheeler went on to contribute to a small number of other periodicals, including Good Words, Little Wide-Awake, The Cornhill Magazine, The Magazine of Music and The Black Cat. His work also appeared the annual Punch Almanack and in Hood’s Comic Annual.

His earliest-known book illustrations appeared in 1879, in a volume in Smith, Elder & Co.’s re-issues of the works of William Makepeace Thackeray. Two years later, he began illustrating sheet music for the publisher Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co. In 1886, he illustrated an edition of Frederick Marryat’s Masterman Ready for Frederick Warne & Co., and two years later he illustrated a collection of comic extracts from Dickens and a re-issue of Marryat’s Mr Midshipman Easy for G. Bell & Sons. Ten years later, when George Routledge & Sons launched their 22-volume series The Novels of Frederick Marryat, Wheeler was commissioned to illustrate 10 volumes, which appeared between 1897 and 1899. In 1893, he was commissioned by J.M. Dent & Co. to illustrate six volumes in their series of the works of Henry Fielding, including Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews, Jonathan Wild and Amelia, and this was followed by a commission from the same publisher for illustrations for three of their re-issues of works by Laurence Sterne, including Tristram Shandy.

In 1894-1895, he illustrated six novels in a re-issue of the works of Charles Lever (an Irish novelist, born in 1806 and died in 1872), which were published in America by Little, Brown & Co., of Boston.

He also illustrated a handful of children’s books, including three boys’ school stories (By A.E. Cheyne, Andrew Home and H. Barrow-North), and an adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels.

In 1890, at Hendon Register Office, he married Marianne Maggs Jones, born in Liverpool on 19 June 1859 and the daughter of Henry Thomas Octavius Jones, a letter carrier, and his wife Elizabeth, née Fennah, who had married in Liverpool in 1857. At the time of the 1881 census, she was a student boarding at 135 Queens Road, Paddington. After the marriage, Edward and Marianne lived with Edward’s parents at 25 Maitland Park Villas, Kentish Town. Edward’s father, then aged 73, was working as a coal merchant. Edward and Marianne went on to have six children: Edward Henry (born in 1891), John Charles (1893), Marianne (1895), Cecilia (1897), Teresa Emily (1899), and Anne Elizabeth (1901).

His work appeared in a handful of exhibitions, although these were associated with his humorous work for Punch – for example, in 1889 his work was included an an exhibition devoted to “English Humorists” at the Royal Instuitute of painters in Watercolours. Throughout the 1880 and 1890s he helped with dramatic entertainments associated with the Priory Schools in Hampstead, and in the early 1900s he was a member of the St. Dominic’s Dramatic Society.

He appears to have done very little work after 1900, with only a handful of books with his illustrations appearing up until 1907. At the time of the 1901 census, he and his family were living at 10 Maitland Park Road, Kentish Town, and they were still there ten years later, with Edward describing himself as an artist and draughtsman.

He appears to have moved back to 25 Maitland Park Villas, which is where he died on 24 November 1933, leaving a small estate valued at just £378. His wife subsequently moved to 25 Maybank Avenue, Wembley, which is where she died in 1940.

PUBLICATIONS

Books Illustrated by E. J. Wheeler
The Memoirs of Mr Charles J. Yellowplush; The Fitz-Boodle Papers, Cox’s Diary; and Character Sketches by William Makepeace Thackeray, Smith, Elder & Co, 1879 (with other artists)
Dance Grotesques for Piano by Arthur H. Jackson (3 nos.), Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co., 1881
Our Golden Youth: A Satire of the Day by anon., published for the proprietor at 6 York Street, Covent Garden, 1881 (with other artists)
The Captain’s Room by Walter Besant, Chatto & Windus, 1883
Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage by E.J. Milliken, Bradbury & Agnew, 1883
Masterman Ready, or The Wreck of the Pacific by Frederick Marryat, Frederick Warne & Co., 1886
The Big Otter: A Tale of the Great Nor’-West by R.M. Ballantyne, George Routledge & Sons, 1887
Tales from Pickwick, with The Five Sisters of York and the Baron of Grogzwig from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, George Routledge & Sons, 1888
Metzler’s Red Album (4 volumes) (music), Metzler & Co., 1888
Mr Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat, G. Bell & Sons, 1888 (re-issue)
The Billow and the Rock: A Tale by Harriet Martineau, George Routledge & Sons, 1889 (re-issue)
Little Red Waistcoat: Takes and Sketches for Little People, George Routledge & Sons, 1890 (with other artists)
Dick Layard, or a Schoolboy’s Trial by A.E. Cheyne, S.P.C.K., 1892
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding, J.M. Dent & Co., 1893 (with Herbert Railton) (re-issue)
The Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His Friend Mr Abraham Adams by Henry Fielding, J.M. Dent & Co., 1893 (with Herbert Railton) (re-issue)
The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild by Henry Fielding, J.M Dent & Co., 1893 (with Herbert Railton) (re-issue)
Amelia by Henry Fielding, J.M. Dent & Co., 1893 (with Herbert Railton) (re-issue)
A Journey From This World to the Next, and A Voyage to Lisbon by Henry Fielding, J.M. Dent & Co., 1893 (with Herbert Railton) (re-issue)
The Life and Death of Tom Thumb, and Some Miscellaneous Writings by Henry Fielding, J.M. Dent & Co., 1893 (with Herbert Railton) (re-issue)
The Letters, Sermons and Miscellaneous Writings of Laurence Sterne by Laurence Sterne, J.M. Dent & Co., 1894
The Pictorial Tutor, The “Magazine of Music” Office, 1894
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne, J.M. Dent & Co., 1894 (re-issue)
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, J.M. Dent & Co., 1894
Gulliver’s Travels, Adapted for the Young by Jonathan Swift, George Routledge & Sons, 1895
From Fag to Monitor, or Fighting to the Front by Andrew Home, A. & C. Black, 1896
The Professor’s Experiment by Margaret Hungerford, Chatto & Windus, 1896
The Boys of Dormitory Three: A Tale of Mystery, Fun and Frolic by H. Barrow-North, George Routledge & Sons, 1899
The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, George Routledge & Sons, 1899
An Evening with “Punch”, Bradbury & Agnew, 1900 (with other artists)
The Adventures of Piclock Holes, Together with a Perversion and a Burlesque by R.C. Lehmann, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1901 (with Edward T. Reed)
Mr Punch’s Dramatic Sequels, Bradbuary & Agnew, 1901
The Voice of the River: A Dartmoor Story by Olive Katharine Parr, George Routledge & Sons, 1903 (with Katharine Parr)
Mr Punch’s Railway Book, Amalgamated Press, 1906 (with other artists)
Back Slum Idylls by Olive Katharine Parr, R. & T. Washbourne, 1907

Re-issues of he novels of Frederick Marryat, published by George Routledge & Sons:
Peter Simple, 1896
Jacob Faithful 1896
Japhet in Search of a Father 1896
Rattlin the Reefer 1897
The Settlers in Canada 1898
Valerie: An Autobiography 1898
Percival Keene 1898
The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet 1898
The Privateersman 1898
The Little Savage 1899

Re-issues of the novels of Charles Lever, published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston, USA:
The Bramleighs of Bishop’s Folly, to which is added, Diary and Notes of Horace Templeton 1894
The Fortune of Glencore 1894
Sir Brooke Fossbrooke, to which is added St. Patrick’s Eve by 1895 (with Hablot K. Browne)
Tony Butler 1895
Lord Kilgobbin 1895