Savile Lumley

Savile Lumley is a name I've seen dozens of times in annuals. Lumley produced the very famous World War I recruitment poster "Daddy, What Did YOU Do In The War?" The story of how that poster came to be is related by Paul Gunn (extract found here):

One night my father came home very worried about the war situation and discussed with my mother whether he should volunteer. He happened to come in to where I was asleep and quite casually said to my mother, "If I don't join the forces whatever will I say to Paul if he turns round to me and says, "What did you do in the Great War, Daddy?" He suddenly turned round to my mother and said that would make a marvellous slogan for a recruiting poster. He shot off to see one of his pet artists, Savile Lumley, had a sketch drawn straight away, based on the theme projected about five years hence, although by the time it had taken shape the questioner had become one of my sisters. To end the story on a nice note, he joined the Westminster Volunteers a few days later!

The poster was commissioned by the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee in 1915.

Little is known about Lumley and his career is generally dated c.1910-c.1950. I have seen 1950 given as his date of death but failed to find any record of his death between 1949-51.

Savile is a rare first name (although an occasional middle name); the only Savile Lumley I have been able to trace was born in Marylebone in 1876, the son of Henry Robert Lumley (c.1826- ), the proprietor of a newspaper, and his wife Blanche Day (nee Plum, c.1839-1913) who were married in 1863. Savile grew up in London and married in Lambeth in 1905. He may be related to Lord Savile, otherwise John Savile-Lumley (1816-1896) who was (to quote his obituary in The Times) "a man of wide culture and artistic tastes and had considerable talents as a draughtsman." Savile Lumley's brothers Lyulph (1867- ) and Osbert (1877- ) both went into journalism, the former as the editor of a court journal.

His earliest cartoons appeared in Sketchy Bits in the late 1890s and his work appeared in Tatler before the war and he also produced posters for railways. In the 1920s and 1930s he contributed heavily to children's magazines and annuals, including Boy's Own Paper, Champion Annual, Chatterbox, Chums, Little Folk, Nelson Lee Library, Printer’s Pie, Scout, Schoolfriend Annual, Schoolgirl’s Own Annual, Young England and elsewhere. Lumley also contributed picture stories to The Boys and Girls Daily Mail in around 1933. Cartoons appeared in The Humorist.

Update: 22 February 2009:
Finally cracked it. Lumley lived at "The Cedars", Belvadere Road, Erith, Kent [1916], 55 Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales Road, Battersea, London S.W.11 [1920/39] and 26 The Butts, Brentford, Ealing [1945/57]. His death is registered at Surrey N.W. in 2Q 1960, aged 84, making the 1876 birth noted above almost certainly correct.


Illustrated Books
Tom Tufton's Loyalty by Eleanora H. Stooke. London, Sunday School Union, 1906.
A Disputed Heritage by E. Everett-Green. London, Pilgrim Press, 1911.
Five Years on a Training Ship by John Dearden Bush & E. T. Miller. London, Pilgrim Press, 1913.
The Royal Navy Painting Book. London, Gale & Polden, 1916.
Chris and Some Others by Winifred Darch. London, Oxford University Press, 1920.
The Mystery of Maybury Manor by Eric Wood. London, Cassell & Co., 1920.
The Right of St. John's by Christine Chaundler. London, Oxford University Press, 1921.
The Deputy Captain by Richard Bird. London, Oxford University Press, 1922 [1921].
The Story of a Chinese Scout by S. V. Boxer. London, London Missionary Society, 1922.
By Canoe to Cannibal-Land by J. H. Holmes. London, London Missionary Society, 1923.
The Captain and the Kings by R. A. H. Goodyear. London, A. & C. Black, 1923.
The Life of the School by R. A. H. Goodyear. London, Jarrolds, 1923.
Battle Royal School by R. A. H. Goodyear. London, Jarrolds, 1924.
Pat of Whitehouse. A story of girl guides by Helen Beatrice Davidson. London, Sheldon Press, 1924.
'Run Away' Nursery Tales. London, The Epworth Press / J. Alfred Sharp, 1924.
Billy in Blunderland. London, The Epworth Press / J. Alfred Sharp, 1925.
My Very Own ABC Book. London, The Epworth Press / J. Alfred Sharp, 1925.
The Nursery ABC Book. London, Frederick Warne, 1925.
The School's Best Man by R. A. H. Goodyear. London, Jarrolds, 1925.
See How We Go. London, Frederick Warne, 1925.
Railway Picture Book. London, Frederick Warne, 1926.
Chappie and the Others by Constance Heward. London & New York, F. Warne & Co., 1926.
Punch and Judy in Animal Land. London, The Epworth Press / J. Alfred Sharp, 1926.
In the Clutch of the Green Hand by Frances Cowen. London, T. Nelson & sons, 1929.
The Secret Station by Ellersley Hall. Auckland, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1929.
Our Pets' Picture Book. London, The Epworth Press, 1931.
The Pendlecliffe Swimmers by Sid G. Hedges. London, Sheldon Press, 1931.
Stolen Feathers by Dora Percy Smith. London, Sheldon Press, 1932.
From a Cottage in Pennycook Lane by Isabel Cameron. London, The Religious Tract Society, 1933.
A School Libel by Richard Bird. London, T. Nelson & Sons, 1934.
The Tales of Apolo. Uganda folklore and proverbs by Apolo Kagwa; with an introduction by the translator F. Rowling. London, Religious Tract Society, 1934.
The Jubilee Book for Boys & Girls. London, The Queensway Press, 1935.
Wonder Tales of Past History by Robert James Finch. London, Shoe Lane Publishing Co., 1935.
Frankie and the Wolf Cubs by Margaret Stuart. London, Boy's Own Paper, 1936.
Holiday at Greystones by Phyllis Logan. London, G. G. Harrap & Co., 1936.
Win Through, Altonbury! by Anton Lind. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1936.
The Greyvale School Mystery by Peter Manton. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
Secret Service at Altonbury by Anton Lind. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
Tony Hits Out by Anton Lind. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
The Impossible Prefect by Hubert J. Robinson. London, T. Nelson & sons, 1939.
Schoolboy Stories. London & Glasgow, Blackie & Son Ltd., 1939.
Fog in the Channel by Percy Woodcock. London, Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1947.
The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1948.
The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1948.
The Young Fur-Traders by R. M. Ballantyne. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1948.
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1949.
The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1949.
Schoolboy Tales. London, T. Nelson & Sons [Thrilling Tales Series 5], 1949.
The World of Ice by R. M. Ballantyne. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1949.
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1950.
The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1950.
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. London, P. R. Gawthorn, 1950.
The Cleverest Chap in the School by Robert Leighton. London, (Jarrolds?), n.d. (later reissue)
Ernest Fairfield; or, Two Terms at St. Andrew's by A. N. Malon. London, (Warne?), n.d. (later reissue)

(* My thanks to Robert Kirkpatrick for many additions to the original list of titles Lumley illustrated.)