C.H. Chapman – A Brief Biography

Written by Peter McCall, Author of the C.H. Chapman Biography “Chappie”

Charles Henry Chapman was born on the first of April, 1879 at Thetford, a small agricultural town in the south of Norfolk. His father was an engineer on the staff of Messers Charles Burrell & sons Ltd. a well known maker of steam rollers and other kinds of farming equipment. From 1889 he attended the Thetford Grammar school. His family moved to Reading in his early teens. He then attended Kendrick school in Reading until he was aged 17.

As a child he was always very fond of drawing. He describes his memory of his mother drawing birds in a “sort of friendly nursery way. I always wished I could draw birds, but I never could draw birds at all” He attributes development of his early drawing skills to the Art Master at Kendrick school who encouraged him. While at Kendrick school He edited and illustrated “The Kendrick Comet”. His brother George was also a regular contributor. After Kendrick school he joined, what was known then as, the Reading College of Art. This was later to be part of the University of Reading. Here he was tutored by, in his words “some very good masters“ notably Mr. Alan Seeby, professor of Fine Arts at the University.

In 1898 he was apprenticed to Mr. Anthony Fox, an architect in Basingstoke. Mr. Fox was the eldest son of Messers Fox and sons of Bournemouth, the well known house agents and Auctioneers. During this time he didn`t like architecture at all but he admitted it gave him a good training and a solid foundation for the work he did later on. He completed his training as an Architectural Draughtsman at age 20, but felt that there was not much future in architecture and little money to be made! In 1903 he decided to strike out on his own and launched himself as an illustrator and architect artist. “The money”, he said, “was to be made in some of the publications, comic papers”.

The Amalgamated Press started at about this time and were doing “wonderful things“. They would bring out a paper every week or month. Papers like Puck, Magnet, Gem, Comic Cuts and the like.

After his apprenticeship at Basingstoke he worked started to work as a free lance artist on comics such as Judy, The Magnet, Chums, Forget-Me-Not, Boys Friend, Boys Herald, The Big Budget, The Captain, Scraps, Comic Cuts, The Jester, Chips and Punch. His first published drawing appeared in “The Captain” in August 1900. Between 1900 and 1805 he had many drawings in “Penny Pictorial” “Girls’ Friend”, “Home Magazine”, “Heroes”, “Daily Graphic”. “Edward-de-Mansey” and “Chums”. Later between 1905 and 1908drawings appeared in :Judy”, “Osanly’s next”, “Hamilton papers of Mr. Edwards”, “The Scout”, “Pearson’s Big Budget”, “Daily Graphic”, “Captain Scott”, Wonder” and Chips”.1 He says he continued to contribute some of his best drawings while these publications were in print on and off up until he retired in 1966 at age 88.

While he was looking around for prospects he was approached by the publishers of Ally Sloper. This was a character that had been a regular in the humour magazine Judy (rival to the more serious magazine Punch) published weekly since its first publication 14 August 1867. The character was originated and written by Charles H. Ross. The original artist that first created the character was Emilie de Tessier (wife of Charles Ross) who worked under the pseudonym Marie Duval. When Charles Ross died his wife continued to write the Ally Sloper text. He did some trial drawings and submitted them to the publisher and they were accepted and paid for. He continued to illustrate the Ally Sloper character for several years after this until the series ended in 1916 as result of paper rationing, a consequence of the first World War. The first World War hit the Boy`s papers hard and it looked for a time that The Magnet and the Gem might be in trouble. However they managed to pull through.

By this time The Magnet and Gem were becoming very popular from their start in 1908. In 1911 their Chief Artist, Arthur Clarke, died and Chapman was asked to take on his job. This was a particularly busy time for these publications and he was expected to be a regular contributor from the very beginning and it turned out to be a full time job.

He was to illustrate the well established character Billy Bunter of Greyfriers School, the boys and the masters. The Billy Bunter series ran regularly until the Second World War When Frank Richards, the author, died in June 1961 he carried on as illustrator of Billy Bunter publications with Messers Cassel’s, the publisher until 1965. The last Billy Bunter Picture Book illustrated by CH Chapman was published by the Old Boys Club produced by Mr. John Wenham in 1967.

The first drawing he did for The Magnet was a fight between Henry Wharton and Bob Cherry in the Billy Bunter series. At this time Billy Bunter was an established character with glasses, his hair quiff in the middle and his check trousers. The check trousers were a key feature to distinguish Billy from Johnny Bull who looked very much like him. It was decided to make him recognizable with the check trousers and the glasses. In those days boys wore very tight trousers as the Oxford bags didn`t come in until much later. Billy Bunter was described as “fat, very greedy and not a very desirable character at all”. His nickname was the Fat Owl. The boys did, however, were fond of him and didn`t let anything really happen to him.

Billy was also cast with a younger brother called Sammy who was nothing like the Billy Bunter character. He also had a sister called Bessie and she had many of the characteristics of Billy! She attended a local girl’s school called Cliff House. All of these details were important in the development of the characters and how they were drawn over time.

It was a very strict routine and a tight schedule illustrating a boy`s magazine. Chapman lived in Woodcote, Oxfordshire, about 25 Kms north of Reading. On a Tuesday morning he would receive in the mail the typed script, a request for a cover, a frontspiece and five or six illustrations. He would prepare the drawings. First there would be a rough drawing in pencil, and then finally he would ink them in. All illustration were drawn approximately double the size used for reproduction. Any colors required would be added in by one of the artistic staff at the magazine office. The completed drawings were placed in the mail on Friday morning and received in the magazine office the following Monday morning. Then the process would repeat itself over again.

There was typically a six week lag period before the drawings would appear in the comic books. If he wanted to take a two week vacation he would have to manage to get two weeks ahead. This tight schedule produced considerable pressure over time. There were no “stand in” artist on staff; however, were other artists on staff at the magazine that could occasionally help out if required. This would entail a series of rough sketches sent in that would be completed by the illustrative staff at the magazine.

Eventually the workload became so heavy that Chapman was provided with a studio next to the office. This entailed spending two or three days a week in London. A consequence of being closer to the office was the ability to, on request, do extra drawings for the magazine.

Chapman would commute by train from Reading to Paddington, usually travelling first class. The train was a steam locomotive in those days and always packed to capacity. Interestingly both of his brothers, W George (an engineer and well known author of technical books on steam trains) and Arthur, both worked for the Great Western Railway in Paddington.

In one of his writings in June 1937 told the story that on more than one occasion, “soothed by the silken progress of travelling”, he dosed off past Tilehurst and even to Goring and Streatly on more than one occasion. This was, incidentally, not that unusual for many of the travellers on his train although few would admit it!

In another story he recounted the “more or less scrappy” form of interesting people he would observe while sitting for 40 or 50 minutes on the train. The idea started in a small way. He used to furtively take out his sketch book and make a hurried pencil drawing of the person sitting opposite. Later he became emboldened and produced more complex sketches. Ultimately, pretending to be absorbed in his newspaper he would amass a whole assembly of characters. These drawings provided him with the various characters later to be used in his cartoons and illustrations. His drawings were carefully taped and indexed in his studio files. He sometimes wondered what he would say if he was caught and regarded as being a spy or some sort of foreign conspirator.2 (Many of these sketch book drawings are still available in John Chapman’s collection).

In more recent years as he became well known he was invited to both write and illustrate for several more specialized publications. These included illustrating articles by George Robey in 1931 and 1932 and for the “Austin Magazine”. He wrote and illustrated material for “The Bicycle” between 1949 and 1951 and also for their competition “Cycling”. The “Radio Times commissioned him to illustrate 12 double page specials in 1951 and 1952.

Over the years he had illustrated for many well known authors in addition to Charles Hamilton. These included Charles P Sisley, George Robey, AC Mann, Arthur Brooke, Home-Gall, and Henry H John Cooper. He worked on commission for several Editors of magazines and these included Hamilton Edwards, Harold Garrish, J L Penelow, HA Hinton, CM Down, Henry H John Cooper and TC Bridges of the Associated Press.

CH Chapman has written many short poems and stories. The stories were mainly hand written but sometimes carefully typed using an old manual typewriter. Several of these scripts are available but have now been transcribed and saved. Titles such as Old Sam’s Outing, Seen from the Saddle Series, Secret Chambers and Hiding Places, Old English Inns and Signs and A Memory: April in the Country – 1907 to name a few.

 

References

  1. Taken from a hand written scrap of paper written by CH Chapman – date unknown
  2. Musings of his travels by train as written by CH Chapman, June 1937

Other material taken from:

  • Hand written scrap of paper written by CH Chapman dated 12-8-1970
  • Transcript of a BBC recording and interview on his 90th birthday
  • Hand written material submitted to “the Kendrick Comet”, May 1897
  • Various newspaper articles