Stanley Berkeley was a talented and very versatile painter and
illustrator, who covered subjects varying from animals to sporting,
historical, military and adventure, with a target audience from very
young children upwards.
He was born in January 1855, and, rather oddly, baptized, as Stanley
Tyerman Berkley, twice – firstly on 16 January 1855 at St. Mary’s
Church, Paddington Green, London, and then on 18 May 1862 at St. Luke’s
Church, West Norwood, Lambeth (both churches being Anglican). His
father, James Thomas Berkley, was a stockbroker, who had married Amelia
Maria Cook in Stoke Newington on 15 May 1833. Stanley was the last of
their nine children.
It is not known where Stanley received his early education, although in an interview in the boys’ story paper Chums in
October 1904 he revealed that he was always first in his art class, and
was so obsessed with art that he drew on almost every available
surface, only avoiding punishment because his teachers recognized his
talent. However, he was not allowed to pursue an artistic career after
leaving school, and instead was obliged to join his brother James as a
solicitor’s clerk. (They were both recorded as such in the 1871 census,
living in the family home which was then at 19 Manor Road, Deptford,
Greenwich).
Between 1892 and 1900 he contributed to numerous periodicals, including The Illustrated London News (1882-1898), The Graphic, The Infant’s Magazine, The Girl’s Own Paper, Chatterbox, The Penny Illustrated Paper, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, The Pictorial World, The Art Journal, Black and White, Chums, The Boy’s Own Paper, The Badminton Magazine, The Leisure Hour, The Sketch, The Road, The Children’s Friend and The Windsor Magazine. In 1900 he began contributing to The Sphere, in particular producing pictures of the Boer War, and he also contributed to Great Thoughts, Pearson’s Magazine and Cassell’s Magazine.
He was also illustrating a wide variety of books, mainly children’s
books in a range of genres – adventure stories, school stories, bible
stories, and historical stories. Amongst the authors whose books he
illustrated were John Percy Groves, George Manville Fenn, F.W. Farrar,
H.C. Adams, F. Bayford Harrison and J.R. Hutchinson, and amongst the
publishers who commissioned him were Griffith & Farran, the
Religious Tract Society, the S.P.C.K., Blackie & Son, Sampson Low,
S.W. Partridge & Co., A.& C. Black, and Chapman & Hall. He
also provided illustrations for books such as Athletics and Football in Longman, Green & Co.’s Badminton Library, and A Year of Sport and Natural History published by Chapman & Hall. Robert J. Kirkpatrick
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