ERNEST HOWARD SHEPARD, MC OBE (1879-1976)


TO A HEALTHY-MINDED CHILD OF SEVEN A POINT-LACE COLLAR IS EVEN MORE OBNOXIOUS THAN A HOT BATH	PETER (AFTER HARVEST THANKSGIVING SERVICE) 'MUMMY WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WITH ALL THOSE APPLES?' MOTHER 'THEY ARE GOING TO THE POOR PEOPLE AT THE HOSPITALS, DARLING' PETER (RECOLLECTING A RECENT ORGY) 'BUT I THOUGHT PEOPLE WENT TO HOSPITALS TO BE CURED OF TUMMY PAIN?'	THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOTOR-PRAM AT KENSINGTON - CHRISTENING CUP DAY AY THE ROUND POND TRACK

AUNTIE MAUD 'DO YOU WANT TO BE A SAILOR, MICHAEL?' MICHAEL 'NO.' AUNTIE MAUD 'A SOLDIER, THEN?' MICHAEL 'NO. I WANT TO BE JUST A PLAIN MAN, LIKE GRANDADDY.'	PAMELA: 'HOW'S YOUR WIFE, PETER?' PETER: 'SHE DIED LAST TUESDAY' PAMELA: 'ARE YOU SORRY?' PETER: 'SORRY? OF COURSE I'M SORRY, I LIKED THE WOMAN.'	VERY YOUNG PLUTOCRAT (LEFT IN THE CAR WHILE HIS PARENTS GO VISITING) 'THE PENNY BAZAAR, JOHN.'

UNCLE 'AH! ROBERT, I SEE YOU COLLECT CIGARETTE CARDS.' ROBERT 'YES, UNCLE, I DO, BUT FROM PURELY AESTHETIC INTERESTS.'	THOUGH ROBERT, LUCKIEST OF BOYS, POSSESSED A CUPBOARD FULL OF TOYS, HE LIKED FAR MORE THAN ALL HIS OWN HIS MOTHER'S TOY, THE TELEPHONE.	MOTHER (DISCUSSING THE NEW BABY'S NAME) 'I'D LIKE HECTOR IT'S SUCH A MANLY NAME.' PAMELA 'OH MUMMY, I WANT JACK IT'S SUCH A BOYLY ONE.'

THE GREAT FLOWER SHOW; OR, GARDENERS' GRIEF. - MR DUFF COOPER. 'I WISH I COULD GET MINE TO LOOK LIKE SOME OF THE FOREIGN EXHIBITS.'	JANET WHEN SHE WENT OUT SHOPPING, HAD A TIRESOME TRICK OF STOPPING EVERY YARD TO POINT AND SAY, 'MOTHER BUY ME THAT I PRAY!'	'YOU - MUST - NEVER - GO - DOWN - TO - THE - END - OF - THE - TOWN - IF - YOU - DON'T - GO - DOWN - WITH - ME!'

DRIFTED SLOWLY ALONG WHILE SHE SANG TO US	MUMMY, IS AN ACTRESS JUST A DISAPPOINTED FILM STAR?	WE EVENTUALLY TRUNDLED OFF

SPREAD A TARPAULIN CAPE OVER OUR SHOULDERS	ERNEST! - FANCY BEING CALLED THAT	AUNT FANNY MET US AT THE STATION

URGED ON BY CRIES OF ENCOURAGEMENT	PLAYED HOCKEY AMONG THE CASTS	RATHER PLEASED WITH OUR COMBINED EFFORTS

RECTORY VISIT	THE COUNCILLOR HAD TO DANCE WITH IT	THE WILD SWANS "SAID IT WAS NOT HIS DAUGHTER"

WINNIE-THE-POOH AND THE HUNNY-POT	WINNIE-THE-POOH	WINNIE THE POOH AND FRIENDS OUTSIDE A TREEHOUSE

THE SUN WAS SO DELIGHTFULLY WARM, AND THE STONE, WHICH HAD BEEN SITTING IN IT FOR A LONG TIME, WAS SO WARM, TOO, THAT POOH HAD ALMOST DECIDED TO GO ON BEING POOH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREAM FOR THE REST OF THE MORNING	LOOK HERE! I FIND I'VE LEFT MY PURSE BEHIND	THEY PILED ON MORE COALS, SHOVELLING FURIOUSLY

DIG MY GARDEN RIGHT OVER FROM END TO END	DISPENSED HOSPITALITY THAT EVENING TO A GLASSY-EYED STIFF-KNEED CIRCLE	THE ROOM WAS VERY STILL AS I APPROACHED THE BUREAU

'LUSISTI SATIS'	THE MUMMERS	THE MURDER RE-ENACTED

BUT ALL THE SAME YOU GIVE THEM A GOOD TALKING	TURNED UPON AND SAVAGELY MALTREATED HIM	AND MADE CAPTURE OF HIM

BUT I LINGERED A MOMENT - IN THE STILL FROSTY AIR	DEVOTED MYSELF TO THE PASSIONATE ABSORBING OF EVERY DETAIL	THEIR OWNER WILLING TO PART WITH THEM FOR THE PRICE MARKED ON THE TICKET

MANNERS AND MODES FOR THE YOUNG WHY NOT A JUVENILE DERBY ON THE BROAD WALK?	THE GLAD NEWS	THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT PUT AWAY YOUR PENS AND BOOKS...

THE REAPER	BLACK COCKER SPANIELS OF ALL THE DOGS THAT ARE SO SWEET...	LONDON LANDSCAPE

MOODIWARPS

ERNEST HOWARD SHEPARD, MC OBE (1879-1976)

The son of an architect, E H Shepard was born in St John’s Wood, London on 10 December 1879. He was encouraged in his early talent for drawing at St Paul’s School, taking extra classes at Heatherley’s School of Art. Between 1897 and 1902, he studied at the Royal Academy Schools, winning the Landseer Scholarship and the British Institution Prize. Receiving much pleasure from his work as an oil painter, he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1901. He also developed a great interest in the illustrators of the 1860s and hoped to contribute to Punch. While beginning to establish himself a book illustrator, he had his first cartoon accepted in 1907, and from that time the two careers worked in parallel.

Serving as an officer in the Royal Artillery throughout the First World War, Shepard was awarded the Military Cross in 1917. During this time, he kept several sketchbooks and worked up some of these drawings for memorable inclusion in Punch.

Shepard was elected to the Punch table in 1921 and made good friends with both Frank Reynolds, the magazine’s new art editor, and the writer E V Lucas. It was Lucas who introduced Shepard to A A Milne, thus initiating several immortal projects, most obviously When We Were Very Young (1924) and Winnie the Pooh (1926). Shepard also illustrated Lucas’s writing in Playtime and Company (1925) and As the Bee Sucks (1937), his own selection of Lucas’s essays. His range as an illustrator could encompass such historical works as Everybody’s Pepys (1926) and such children’s classics as The Wind in the Willows (1931).

Shepard succeeded Leonard Raven-Hill as second political cartoonist on Punch in 1935, and Bernard Partridge as principal cartoonist in 1945; producing some impressive political cartoons during the Second World War. Continually sketching and reworking, he still managed to retain the appearance of spontaneity in his finished work, and excelled at the depiction of both movement and character.

Late in life, Shepard turned to himself as a subject and illustrated his autobiographical reminiscences, Drawn from Memory (1957) and Drawn from Life (1961). He was awarded the OBE in 1972, and died at Midhurst, Sussex on 24 March 1976.

For further information, see: Arthur R Chandler, The Story of E H Shepard: the man who drew Pooh, West Sussex: Jaydem, 2001; Rawle Knox (editor), The Work of E H Shepard, London: Methuen, 1979

ERNEST HOWARD SHEPARD, MC OBE (1879-1976)

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