A Memorial to Emily Jane Morley

I think I have neglected this entry for long enough and it's about time that I start putting more of my work out there for people to read (if they wish).

One of the long serving members of staff at BSA was the needlework teacher, Emily Jane Morley. Morley was born on 27 November 1860, and her family home was in Rokeby Road in Brockley.[1] She appears as the needlework teacher in the BSA adverts in the Woolwich Gazette, offering classes on Tuesday mornings between 10.30am and 12.30pm and Thursday afternoons from 3pm to 4.30pm.[2]

Unfortunately I am yet to find an example of her work although judging from the reports of student works she was a highly respected teacher. Examples of comments over the year include the following:

1914 - ‘Arranged in the upper studio of the new wing may be seen numerous exquisite pieces of Art Needlework done by the pupils of Miss E.J. Morley.’[3]

1921 – ‘In the needlework section, where the quality of work has always been excellent…’[4]

1923 – 6 October 1923 – students’ exhibition review

The 1921 prospectus described Art Needlework classes as follows (it was at this time a subject studied only by women) –

‘Students are taught the various Stitches etc., which belong to Embroidery, Drawn Thread and Lace Work, also the application to various articles of daily use and ladies’ apparel’.[5]

Morley lived at 11 Lee Park, very close to BSA, with her assistant and companion Lilian Booth. Emily Morley died on 10 June 1925 and whilst I have not yet found any illustrations of her works there is still a memorial in Blackheath that relates to her. Morley’s funeral was held on Monday 15 June 1925 at St Michael and All Angels in Blackheath and the internment at Nunhead Cemetery.[6] One of the principal mourners was her companion and assistant Lilian Booth. Morley was a very highly regarded member of the teaching staff at BSA, the school was closed on the day of her funeral as a measure of respect.[7] The principal, John Howard Hale, the secretary EP Lewis and the registrar Mrs Dowling represented the school as well as many students of BSA both past and present. The principal and committee of BSA presented a wreath in the ‘form of a chaplet’ and her colleagues and students presented a wreath in the form of a palette.[8]

Memorial to Emily Jane Morley carved by BSA students, St Michael's, Blackheath.
Source: Thanks to St Michael's Blackheath for allowing me to photograph and publish this image.

The memorial to her was to be unveiled on 16 June 1927 at 6pm in St Michael’s, Blackheath.[9] This wood carved epitaph was created by students at BSA. Woodworking students were taught by Mr F Parrott. From the descriptions provided in the contemporary prospectuses I believe that the students who produced the beautifully carved memorial were studying under Parrott as the lettering classes do not refer to the use of carving as part of the students’ learning.

I hope at some point to discover some needlework made by Morley but until then this memorial remains a tangible memory of her work at BSA.

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[1] She was baptised on 23 December 1860, and the family home was at 13 Rokeby Road, Brockley and her father Alfred was a stationer.

[2] ‘Government School of Art’, in Woolwich Gazette, Fri 10 Jun 1898, p. 4 and Fri 16 Mar 1900, p. 4.

[3] ‘Blackheath School of Art: Exhibition of Students’ Works’ in Blackheath Local Guide, 26 September 1914, p. 8.

[4] ‘Blackheath School of Art: Student Exhibition’ in Blackheath Local Guide, 21 October 1921, p. 37.

[5] Blackheath, Lee, Lewisham & Greenwich School of Arts and Crafts Prospectus, 1920 – 1921, p. 14. Morley taught classes during the day Tue 10am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 4.30pm, Thu 2.30pm to 4.30pm and Fri 10.30am to 12.30pm, and in the evening Mon 6.30pm to 8.30pm and Tues to Thu 7pm to 9pm.

[6] ‘Funeral of Miss Morley’, in Blackheath Local Guide, 25 June, p. 36.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Loc. cit. pp. 36 & 37.

[9] ‘St Michael’s, Blackheath Park’, in Blackheath Local Guide, 11 Jun 1927, p. 6. The unveiling was in conjunction with a day dedicated to missionary work in China undertaken by members of the congregation.

Blackheath School of Art and art therapy for wounded soldiers in World War I

In the course of my reading about the history of the BSA I came across an article which described a scene that has remained with me from the moment I read it. It concerned a returning soldier standing, silently, neck deep in water in one of the Blackheath ponds. I can only scarcely imagine the awful predicament that he must have been in. What followed was a description that people just walked past him as if it was something strange and not doing anything about it. It took another soldier, passing by, to understand the distress the poor young man must have been suffering. He removed his coat and waded into the water to rescue him, made sure he was okay and then walked away.[1]

Bermondsey Military Hospital, Ladywell.
Source: more available here

Thankfully there were some positive stories relating to soldiers and their state of mind when returning from the Front. Just prior to the temporary move of the Blackheath School of Art to its temporary location at 5 Lee Terrace (opposite St Margaret’s, Lee) in September 1918 the annual students’ exhibition included works by soldiers returning from the Front. These soldiers had been injured and were recovering in Bermondsey Military Hospital in nearby Ladywell.

John Howard Hale, Principal of Blackheath School of Art, 1928.
Blackheath Local Guide, 21 July 1928, p. 14.

John Howard Hale, principal of BSA, worked closely with the medical officer in charge of the hospital, Lieutenant Colonel H Marrett Tims, using arts and crafts as a way to help rehabilitate soldiers. These classes began in the February of 1918 and despite initial worries about funding they ran and were very successful. Funding was secured from the British Red Cross through the hard work of the Mayor and Mayoress of Lewisham. It was Tims’ belief that the recovery of the soldiers would be hastened by undertaking creative craft work.

Bermondsey Military Hospital Christmas Card 1918 from H Marrett Tims and staff.

At the suggestion of Tims and John White, Hale was tasked with deciding on the classes and also recruiting teachers of the classes from the existing BSA staff and advanced students. The following subjects were decided upon as the most beneficial for the soldiers: bookbinding, woodcarving, metalwork, drawing, lettering and design  and needlework (including rug making). Recovering soldiers had been encouraged to undertake art earlier in 1916, at Johnson Hospital in Lincoln although I believe that the organised classes at Bermondsey Military Hospital were some of the first to be tailor made in order help with rehabilitation.[2]

According to the author of the article in the Blackheath Local Guide, it seemed like the expectations held for the classes succeeding (being popular) were not incredibly high. Through the expertise of the teachers and students recruited by Hale the scheme was incredibly popular with the patients. The soldiers were incredibly inspired by their immersion into the world of arts and crafts. The hard work of the instructors allowed an access to the creative process that many of the soldiers were either not familiar with or had never had the opportunity to utilise in the past.

Many of the soldiers stayed in touch with their instructors after they were discharged from the hospital. It also led to others becoming teachers of art when returning to their home countries. The outstanding success of the scheme was summed up by the following:

The scheme has succeeded almost beyond the sanguine expectations of its originator. The instructors, under his [Hale’s] inspiration and direction, threw themselves whole-heartedly into their work and found the soldiers apt and eager pupils. Whilst they received from Lieut-Col. Tims every encouragement. That the scheme, whilst recreative, was at the same time truly educative is shown by the fact that one man has already received an appointment as [a] teacher of wood-carving in South Africa.[3]

The soldiers were inspired by learning new skills and the teaching of the instructors that many of them kept in touch with their teachers after being discharged from the hospital. Others also expressed a wish for art lessons to continue in earnest in their home villages.[4] The instructors for these classes were taken from the teaching staff at the school and advanced students. Some of the students who helped were: Miss Butler, Miss Booth, Miss Cooke, Miss Harding and Miss White and the administrative work was taken up by the school’s registrar Mrs SW Dowling who acted as Honorary Secretary.[5] I haven’t yet been able to find out a lot about these students other than there was a Miss E White whose church book marks were praised in the 1916 students’ exhibition, as were the crocheted pieces by Miss Harding mentioned,[6] and a Mrs EB Cooke’s ceramic works were described as ‘striking’.[7]

Harold Nelson, Design for a Coat of Arms - given Nelson's proficiency with designing arms I can imagine that he helped soldiers with reproducing their crests.
Source: Collection of the author.

Teaching staff during these years included John Kerr (Design and Weaving), Emily Jane Morley (Needlework and Embroidery), Harold Nelson (Black and White Illustration), Mr R Toms (Metalwork), and Mr Edgar Green (Bookbinding). I would presume that some of the works included in the exhibition later held at the hospital included pieces by the teachers of the soldiers’ classes.

Advertisement for courses at BSA featuring details of the exhibition of the works of art created by wounded soldiers.
Blackheath Local Guide, 17 November 1918, p. 1.

Ten days after the Armistice an exhibition of the works made by the soldiers was opened by Lady Haig at the Bermondsey Military Hospital. Included among the soldiers’ works were pieces by their teachers which most likely included the teachers mentioned above from BSA staff and also the advanced students. The opening, on 21 November, received national coverage although the detail was very brief. The exhibition featuring in the Daily Record and Mail, the next day, was described as follows:

Lady Haig, in opening an exhibition of art and craft work by soldier patients at the Bermondsey Military Hospital yesterday, said that her husband’s one hope and one thought, now that the war was over, was for those who had who had been through fighting… She knew that his one aim and ambition in life was to see that those who had fought and suffered should come through all right.[8] 

Lady Haig was incredibly impressed by the quality of the works that were produced over such a short period of time.[9]

The exhibition was extremely popular with the works selling out very quickly. The soldiers were described as being very adept at needlework, I can imagine Emily Morley and Harold Nelson helping them with their depictions of company and squadron crests, these being understandably popular subjects. The works were ‘judged’ by Lady Robertson (a member of the BSA committee) the principal Hale, which makes me think that they gave awards to the soldiers (again sadly I have not found any record of these). Lady Robertson also expressed delight at the high quality of work on display.[10]

I am hopeful, that this might be the beginning of discovering more about an incredible period in the history of the Blackheath School of Art and its role in the rehabilitation of soldiers returning from the battlefields. Perhaps the last words should, for now, belong to the reviewer:

Every visitor must have been struck by the originality both of design and treatment displayed in the work; whether embroidery and needlework or jewellery, and metalwork or pottery and wood-carving. In execution, too, many of the articles on view were marked with a delicacy which one associates with the gentler sex. How highly those present at the Exhibition thought of the work was shown by the quick sale of all the exhibits.[11]

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[1] I am usually very good at writing down references, but yet, for some reason I didn’t note the date or page number of the Blackheath Guide I was reading other than it was from 1915.

[2] The classes at Johnson Hospital are believed to have led to the founding of the Spalding Arts and Crafts Society - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b0vzt

[3] ‘Art and the Wounded Soldier’ in Blackheath Local Guide, 14 December 1918, p. 20.

[4] loc. cit., p. 21. Unfortunately there is no reference to specific names of soldiers or teachers.

[5] Blackheath Local Guide, 19 October, 1918, p. 14. The names appear in a brief review of the Students’ Exhibition.

[6] ‘Blackheath School of Arts and Crafts: Exhibition of Students’ Works’ in Blackheath Local Guide, 7 October 1916, p. 15 and ‘Blackheath School of Art: Exhibition of Students’ Works: Blackheath Local Guide, 26 September, 1914, p. 8. In 1914 Miss E White exhibited a processional banner featuring St Peter holding keys on a white ground destined for St Peter’s Church, Eltham. It was described as one of the more prominent works on display.

[7] Blackheath Local Guide, 27 September 1919, p. 24. ‘Nor has the Potter’s wheel been idle. Specimens of pottery thrown, baked, decorated, glazed and fired including some striking work by Mrs EB Cooke.’

[8] ‘Sir D. Haig’s One Ambition’, in Daily Record and Mail, Friday 22 November, 1918, p. 5.

[9] Blackheath Local Guide, 14 Dec 1918, p. 21.

[10] ibid.

[11] loc. cit. pp. 21 – 22.

John Howard Hale: First principal of the Blackheath School of Art

It seems a little remiss of me to not have started my blog on the history of the Blackheath School of Art with John Howard Hale who was its first principal.

When the Blackheath School of Art was founded in 1895, John Howard Hale was its first principal. Hale led the move from the premises in Bennett Park to its new location behind the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music in 1897.[1] I would like to think that Hale was involved in the design of the building which is still in use today. When it was designed by Gabriel and Edmeston (who were also responsible for the Blackheath Halls and the Conservatoire) and built, it was described as follows:

The school buildings… are of red-bank Leicestershire brick, with roofs of Sedan Green slates, and a leaden flat top, in which nearly seven tons of lead were used. The building consists of the large studio 60 ft. by 30 ft., and 27 ft. high, divided by two portable partitions which, when removed, can be used as tables for exhibitions; a class-room, which is used for modelling and carving; a secretary’s room, a small lumber-room and two well-ventilated lavatories. The studios are lighted with extensive north lights in roof and walls. The ceilings are in fibrous plaster, panelled and the floors are partly granilitic and partly wood blocks. There are two entrances to the studios, with vestibules, and the doors are of teak wood. For warming purposes ordinary coal fires are used, and the lighting is by gas coronas. The whole outside area is concreted, and the front enclosed by a wall and railing. At the rear a cycle-shed has been erected.[2]

J.J. Henderson New School of Art and Science 15 Nov 1897.Source: Blackheath Illustrated Review 1896/ 97, p. 71.

John Howard Hale, Morning Mist, oil on board.

Source: WH Lane and Son (www.thesaleroom.com) 

John Howard Hale, Trees before a landscape setting, oil on board.

Source: Eastbourne Auctions Lot1347

A traditional landscape and figure painter Hale studied at the following schools of art: Farnham, Royal College of Art, South Kensington and the Westminster School of Art under Fred Brown. He continued learning in Amsterdam focusing on traditional Dutch seventeenth century and nineteenth century landscapes the influence of which can be seen in the paintings illustrated below. He further developed his landscape painting technique with George Boyle, who was a south east London artist influenced by the paintings of Corot, earning him the moniker ‘The Corot of Catford’.[3]

Teachers during this period included Hugh Bellingham Smith, Terrick Williams, Frederick Marriott, Harold Nelson, Miss B Goff (Bertha or Blanche which was explored in an earlier blog) and Frederick Halnon. Students during Hale’s time at the school included Charles Folkard, Nora Cundell, Blanche Goff, Percy Noel Boxer, Dorothy Wheeler and John Skeaping.

At his retirement party in 1928, Hale was lauded for the hard work he put into the school and his 41 years of dedicated service at the Blackheath School of Art and its predecessor the Government Art School. His hope post retirement was that he could dedicate some time to concentrate on his paintings. Sir George Hume, a member of the BSA committee, who presented him with his leaving gift realised at this point ‘a little what a place the Art School occupied in the Neighbourhood, and of the splendid work it had achieved in the past’.[4]  At the event Madame Tester-Jones and her students at the BCM performed, bringing both of the schools together to celebrate his career.

The article that reported on this event concluded with the following words, summing up John Howard Hale’s time in Blackheath:

‘Mr Hale leaves behind him in Blackheath as a remembrance of his 41 years’ work there the School of Art, which when he was first associated with it, occupied a Private House in Bennett-park, and which, greatly helped by his personal enthusiasm and interest in it, has acquired its present excellent studios and additions made to them just before and just after the war.’[5]

Hale's leadership cemented the great reputation of the school and paved the way for the exciting times under his successor John Edgar Platt (more about him soon). Hale lived for another 27 years after his retirement dying in his early 90’s, in 1955. Hopefully the opportunity to devote his time to painting rather than the development of the school of art was just the tonic in retirement.

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[1] Blackheath Local Guide and District Advertiser, 7 August 1897, p. 14. The brief details of the move appear in an advert worded: “Blackheath, Lee and Lewisham Government School of Art. Late of 27 Bennett Park & Art Studios, With which the Alexandra Hall Classes are now amalgamated, HAS NOW REMOVED To the New Building adjoining the Concert Hall”.

[2] ‘The Blackheath, Lee, and Lewisham Government School of Art and Science’, Blackheath Illustrated, Review, 1896-97, p. 72.

[3] Christies Sale 9178, Lot 144, British and Continental Pictures, 30 August 2001, South Kensington. The lot note shows that George Boyle was known as the Corot of Catford.

[4] ‘Blackheath School of Art: Presentation to Mr J. Howard Hale’, Blackheath and District Advertiser, Jul / Aug?, 1928, pp. 14-16.

[5] Ibid.