Lunt Roberts

LUNT ROBERTS

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

Lunt Roberts was probably best-known for his illustrations for eight of Malcolm Saville’s stories (between 1945 and 1957) and the two “Jimmy” books by Richmal Crompton (1949 and 1951). He was also a cartoonist, working in particular for The Bystander, The Humorist and Punch, and he also worked a number of children’s comics.

He was born in Secunderabad, India, on 28 August 1894, and christened Richard John Lunt Roberts. His father, Richard Roberts (born in 1849 in Caernarvon, Wales) was a railway storekeeper with the India Railway. He had married Florence Emily Bear in October 1888 in India, although she died on 19 November 1890, and he then married Gertrude Annie Lunt, born in 1872 in Victoria, Australia (to English parents), at St. Thomas’s Cathedral, Bombay, on 26 November 1893. They went on to have two further children: Myfanwy Gwynedd (born in 1896) and, after the family had returned to Wales in the late 1890s, Thomas Llewelyn, born in Aber, Caernarvonshire, on 10 September 1899. At the time of the 1901 census, the family was boarding in a farmer’s house, “Penrybryn,” in Aber.

Ten years later, they had moved to “Sharur,” Llandudno (then in Caernarvonshire), with Richard John Lunt Roberts recorded as a part-time student. Soon after this, in 1913, he moved to London, where he worked as a graphic artist and joined the London Sketch Club. (It is not known where he received his early artistic training). A year later, on 27 August 1914, he enlisted as a Private in the 1/6th Royal Welsh Fusiliers, securing a commission as a Second Lieutenant on 25 June 1915. In October 1915 he was sent to Gallipoli, only to be caught up in appalling weather a month later, and being evacuated to Egypt and admitted to hospital in Giza, Cairo, on 4 December 1915. He subsequently returned to his battalion, where, in early 1916, he began drawing and painting army life, and later, after the armistice, exploring Egypt and producing pictures of the people and scenery. (For more on Lunt Roberts time in Egypt, and in particular the art that he produced there, see here.)

He returned to England in June 1919, and enrolled at the Leicester School of Art, where he studied alongside his brother Thomas, and acted with the Art Students Union. Two years later he began his career as an illustrator, with contributions to The Yellow Magazine, and, in 1922, to Gaiety, The Boys’ Friend and, most notably, The Bystander, to which he contributed cartoons and, later, illustrations for short stories, until 1934.

His career as a book illustrator began in 1922, with illustrations for Dugout Doggerels from Palestine, a book of wartime verse by John N. More. Between 1927 and 1933 he illustrated eight Enid Blyton short stories in Cassell’s Children’s Annual and Bo Peep’s Bumper Book. In 1934, he illustrated Wonderful London Today, a collection of pieces by James A. Jones that had originally appeared in The Evening News. (They both collaborated on a second book, London’s Eight Millions, three years later.)

In the meantime, Lunt Roberts had continued to contribute to a number of periodicals, including The Tatler, The Red Magazine, The Strand Magazine, London Opinion, The Passing Show, The Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, The Hull Daily Mail and The Graphic. He also went on to work for George Newnes’s magazine The Humorist, and Punch. He was also still working as a graphic artist, for example designing posters for the London Underground.

In 1923, Lunt Roberts was living at 30 Kemplay Road, Hampstead. The following year, in Lewisham, Kent, he married Hilda Plant (born in Gresford, Flintshire, on 18 December 1896, and the daughter of John Plant, a brick and terracotta works manager). In 1932, they moved to 22 Kemplay Road, and by 1939 they had moved to 14 Overdale Avenue, New Malden, Surrey, with Lunt Roberts working as an Editorial Artist with The London Evening News (where he remained until the 1960s) and having been elected President of the London Sketch Club in the same year. During the Second World War he worked as an illustrator for the Ministry of Information.

He began to be in demand as a book illustrator after 1944, when he illustrated Malcolm Saville’s Trouble at Townsend. He went on to illustrate a further seven of Saville’s children’s stories, plus novels by authors such as Douglas V. Duff, Angus Macvicar, Judith M. Berrisford, Ursula Bloom, Kathleen Fidler and Gerald Bowman. He also illustrated several books for younger children, including stories by Enid Blyton, and a series of books starring the ventriloquist’s dummy Archie Andrews. In 1949 he illustrated Richmal Crompton’s Jimmy, published by George Newnes (after the stories had earlier been published in The Star newspaper with illustrations by Thomas Henry), followed by Jimmy Again in 1951. (In total, 62 of the 87 “Jimmy” stories were published by George Newnes in these two books, and these were re-issued in three paperbacks by Armada in 1965, under the titles Jimmy, Jimmy Again and Jimmy the Third, all with the Lunt Roberts illustrations. Roberts also illustrated a Just William’s Magic Painting Book).

He also worked on a handful of comics in the late 1940s/1950s, including the Amalgamated Press’s Knockout and Rocket and Beaverbrook’s  TV Comic (for which he drew a “Mr Pastry” strip between 1951 and 1958, with one the strips, “Mr Pastry’s Sportsday”, being issued as a “T.V. Comic Mini Book” in 1951). He also illustrated three more Enid Blyton stories in The Jack and Jill All Colour Gift Book (published by The News of the World) in 1950, 1951 and 1952, which were reprinted in My Own Storybook in 1956. He also contributed to annuals such as The Daily Mail Annual and The Swift Annual.

He also did many illustrations for The Wide World Magazine in the 1950s.

Lunt Roberts’s last major work appeared in 1965, in With Lewis and Clark Through the Rockies, a factual account of an 1806 expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark written by Gerald Bowman. (He had earlier illustrated Bowman’s account of Roald Amundsen’s journey to the North Pole in 1911, and his account of the first overland crossing of Antarctica in 1957-58 by Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary.  All three books were published by Frederick Muller.)

In the meantime, he and his wife had become active members of the local Coombe Wood Golf Club. He was its Captain in 1948, and his wife served as Secretary of the Ladies Section between 1952 and 1975.

He died, at his home in Overdale Avenue, on 21 October 1981, leaving an estate valued at £41,376. His wife died, also at Overdale Avenue, on 11 November 1987, leaving £101,688.

Lunt Roberts’s brother Thomas taught art at Lutterworth Grammar School for many years from the 1930s to the early 1960s. He married May Winifred Blaxley (born in Leicester on 13 August 1901) in Leicester in 1933, and they lived at 205 Knighton Road until they died.  May Roberts died on 15 March 1982, and he died on 29 April 1988, leaving an estate valued at £115,920.

PUBLICATIONS

Illustrated by Lunt Roberts
Dugout Doggerels from Palestine by John N. More, Heath Cranton, 1922
Wonderful London Today by James A. Jones, John Long, 1934
Tindertoken School by W.R. Henderson, Blackie & Son, 1934 (dustwrapper) (re-issue)
The Hospital Centenary Gift Book, George G. Harrap & Co., 1935 (with other artists)
London’s Eight Millions by James A. Jones, John Long, 1937
Mr Jones Comes to Stay by Joyce Glover, George G. Harrap & Co., 1942
Trouble at Townsend by Malcolm Saville, Transatlantic Arts Co., 1944
Life in many Lands: 1. Life in Other Homes by L. Edna Walker, James Nisbet & Co., 1944 (with other artists)
Looking for Trouble by Douglas V. Duff, Hollis & Carter, 1945
A Book of Swimming by Janet Bassett Lowke, Puffin, 1945
Danger Chasers by Douglas V. Duff, Hollis & Carter, 1946
Caravan for Three by Ursula Bloom, University of London Press, 1947
Kalee and Other Stories by F.G. Turnbull, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1947
Let’s Find Hidden Treasure by Trevor Henley, Venturebooks, 1947
The Riddle of the Painted Box by Malcolm Saville, Noel Carrington, 1937
Redshank’s Warning by Malcolm Saville, Lutterworth Press, 1948
Two Fair Plaits by Malcolm Saville, Lutterworth Press, 1948
Teddy Tail’s Book of Children’s Songs, Ken Publications, 1949
Jimmy by Richmal Crompton, George Newnes Ltd., 1951
The Fencer’s Companion by Leon Bertrand, Gale & Polden, 1949
The Flying Fish Adventure by Malcolm Saville, John Murray, 1950
Stubby Sees it Through by Angus Macvicar, Burke Publishing Co., 1905
Jimmy Again by Richmal Crompton, George Newnes Ltd., 1951
Archie and the Engine Driver and Other Stories, Macmillan & Co., 1951
Admiral Archie and Other Stories, Macmillan & Co., 1951
Archie Guy Fawkes and Other Stories, Macmillan & Co., 1951
Mr Pastry’s Sportsday, TV Comic, 1951
Unwritten Contract by Henry Longhurst, Professional Golfers’ Co-operative Association, 1952
The Secret of the Hidden Pool by Malcolm Saville, John Murray, 1953
Round the Year Storybook, P.R. Gawthorn Ltd, 1953 (with other artists)
Storiau Munudau Hamdenn i Blant by Trevor Williams, 1953-1954 (4 volumes)
Pete, Pam and Jim, the Investigators by Kathleen Fidler, Lutterworth Press, 1954
Rustlers in the New Forest by Judith M. Berrisford, Macmillan & Co., 1954
Adventure on the Alm by Nancy Martin, Macmillan & Co., 1955
On Guard Spot by Enid Blyton, News of the World, 1955
Spring Comes to Nettleford by Malcolm Saville, Children’s Book Club, 1955 (re-issue) (dustwrapper)
Final Performance: A Mystery with Music by Reginald Masters, Macmillan & Co., 1956
Fun and Adventure by Thomas Wright & Mary Wilson, Macmillan & Co., 1956
Young Johnnie Bimbo by Malcolm Saville, John Murray, 1956
The Fourth Key by Malcolm Saville, John Murray, 1957
Just William’s Painting Book, Publicity Products, 1957
Achievement; An Anthology of Ends Attained ed. by D.W. Barker, Macmillan & Co., 1957
Stories for Me by Eileen Ryder, Macmillan & Co., 1957 (6 volumes) (with Esmé Jeudwine)
Children’s Favourite Stories in Pictures, Associated Newspapers, 1957 (with other artists)
Mystery in Maori Land by John Hornby, Macmillan & Co., 1958
Fun and Adventure, Book 2 by Thomas Wright & Mary Wilson, Macmillan & Co., 1960
With Fuchs and Hillary Across Antarctica by Gerald Bowman, Frederick Muller, 1961
English by Stages by Isaac Morris, Macmillan & Co., 1962
Stirring Stories for Girls ed. by Eric Duthie, Odhams Press, 1963 (with other artists)
With Amundsen at the North Pole by Gerald Bowman, Frederick Muller, 1963
Two Stories: The Sire de Maletroit’s Door and A Lodging for the Night by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Linton Stone, Macmillan & Co., 1964
With Lewis and Clark Through the Rockies by Gerald Bowman, Frederick Muller, 1965
Jimmy by Richmal Crompton, Armada, 1965
Jimmy Again by Richmal Crompton, Armada, 1965
Jimmy the Third by Richmal Crompton, Armada, 1965