See also

Philip MAY ( - )

1. Philip William MAY, son of Charles Hughes MAY ( - ), was a Commercial Traveller. He married unk UNK.

 

unk UNK was the daughter of Eugene MACCARTHY ( - ). She and Philip William MAY had the following children:

 

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Philip William MAY (1864-1903)

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Charles Hugh MAY ( - )

Second Generation

2. Philip William MAY, son of Philip William MAY and unk UNK, was born on 22 April 1864. He died on 5 August 1903.

 

Phil May was the well-known cartoonist. He was orphaned at the age of 9.

 

Philip William May was born at Wortley, near Leeds, the son of an engineer. His father died when the child was nine years old. His mother was the daughter of Eugene Macarthy, one time manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She was left in very poor circumstances and the family had a great struggle to exist. His grandfather, a country gentleman, had some talent as a draughtsman and liked making caricatures. At twelve, Phil May had begun to earn his living in a solicitor's office; before he was fifteen he had acted as time-keeper at a foundry, had tried to become a jockey and had been on the stage at Scarborough and Leeds. He was fond of drawing and when only 14 years old had drawings accepted for the Yorkshire Gossip. When he was about seventeen he went to London with a sovereign in his pocket. He suffered extreme want, sleeping out in the parks and streets, until he obtained employment as designer to a theatrical costumier. He also drew posters and cartoons, and for about two years worked for the St Stephens Review, until he was advised to go to Australia for his health.

During the three years (1886 -1889) he spent there he was attached to The Sydney Bulletin, or The Bulletin as it was better known, for which many of his best drawings were made. He produced about 800 drawings for The Bulletin. On his return to Europe he went to Paris by way of Rome, where he worked hard for some time before he appeared in 1892 in London to resume his interrupted connection with the St Stephens Review. His studies of the London guttersnipe and the coster-girl rapidly made him famous. His overflowing sense of fun, his genuine sympathy with his subjects, and his kindly wit were on a par with his artistic ability. It was often said that the extraordinary economy of line which was a characteristic feature of his drawings had been forced upon him by the deficiencies of the printing machines of the Sydney Bulletin. It was in fact the result of a laborious process which involved a number of preliminary sketches, and of a carefully considered system of elimination. His later work included some excellent political portraits. He became a regular member of the staff of Punch in 1896, and in his later years his services were retained exclusively for Punch and The Graphic. He was a founder member in 1898 of the London Sketch Club. He died in 1903.

There was an exhibition of his drawings at the Fine Arts Society in 1895, and another at the Leicester Galleries in 1903. A selection of his drawings contributed to the periodical press. Examples of his work will be found at the leading Australian galleries, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum. From 1892-1904 there were thirteen editions of Phil May's Illustrated Winter Annual with three supplemental Summer Annuals.[1] In addition to his Summer and Winter Annuals various collections were published, including Phil May's Sketch Book (1895), Phil May's Guttersnipes (1896), Phil May's Graphic Pictures and Phil May's A. B. C. (1897), Phil May's Album (1899), Phil May, Sketches from Punch (1903). Posthumous publications include Phil May in Australia (1904), The Phil May Folio (1904), and Humorists of the Pencil, Phil May (1908).

 

3. Charles Hugh MAY was the son of Philip William MAY and unk UNK.

 

... who retired to live with his daughter Elsie and her family in Harrow. My Aunt Sheila remembers that he was a scholar of Shakespeare and was always singing and entertaining the children.

 

Charles Hugh MAY had the following children:

 

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Elsie MAY ( - )

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Katie MAY ( - )

Third Generation

4. Elsie MAY was the daughter of Charles Hugh MAY.

 

5. Katie MAY was the daughter of Charles Hugh MAY.

 

Katie died, sadly, at the age of two. All we have is the portrait by Phil May.