Raymond Sheppard and Our Caravan

 

Our Caravan cover

In previous articles I've shown the compilation The Caravan Family (with a biography of the author) which contains  Our House on Wheels,  Our Camping Holiday and Our Caravan featured here. 

Before we start I wanted to say something of the material used to draw on. Sheppard appears here to have used Whatman's Water Colour Sketching Board size #9 (21.25 x 15 inches / 54 x 30.2 cm) made by Winsor & Newton Limited. This can be clearly be seen on the reverse of the three images auctioned recently which appeared in the 'caravan' series.

Whatman's Water Colour Sketching Board - reverse

The other interesting thing to be gleaned from the reverse of the board is that Sheppard drew these for Byron Studios Limited who were based at 8 Farringdon Avenue, Shoe Lane EC4 (Telephone CENTRAL 539213) and were obviously published by Blackie and Son.

 The stories contained in this last volume are:

• A spring start
• Birds and flowers
• In the woods
• Shopping
• Change of weather
• The snow-storm
• Harry
• Playing about
• Dressing up - and home
  

 So let's look at Raymond Sheppard's illustrations for this book.

"Before them stood the “magic carpet”"
The children rush to see the caravan

Title page - with inscription!

The car towing the caravan

"The swallows came back"

"'There are houses across those fields', said Tony"
The children (and Colin) spot a church and village

"Buying Mother's birthday present"
A lovely scene of an old-fashioned corner shop

“Thank you so much”, said Patsy
George lifts Paul up on his shoulder

"Thanks so much" is unusual in this series, being a black and white full page where the only full pages are normally in colour

"The drive to the Beacon"

The family run through the snowstorm

"A spring snow-storm"
The snow starts falling

"It's getting like a blizzard"
Father and the boys watch from inside the caravan

The family walk in the snow - Original Art

"Breakfast on the road"
The family walk in the snow - as published

The colours of the original art still look bright and compare them to the published version.

"Tony gets busy"
Tony shovels snow from the caravan door

"Here he comes, late for breakfast as usual"

"Peacocks"

 "The best-tempered of ponies"
Harry rides the pony

"All dressed up"
The children put on a play, all dressed up

"Where could those children be?"
The men search the secret passage for the children

Picking daffoldils

"Homeward Bound"

Notice the two rabbits on the verge after the caravan has driven past - a nice image for the endpaper of this book.

I did wonder putting this together whether the books were each designed to map the seasons as Our House on Wheels is set in Summer, Our Camping Holiday is set in Autumn, and the last Our Caravan is set in Winter/Spring. The theme was popular as we have seen with Maribel Edwin's titles for example.

Raymond Sheppard and The Caravan Family by M. D. Hillyard

Our Caravan cover

Before Christmas 2022 three paintings came up for auction which I promised to write about. So here we go...

Blackie and Son Limited published "The Caravan Family" by M. D. Hillyard c. 1938. This date is not very certain and you'll see why shortly.

I love the British Library, who, when there is no obvious publication date, add the accession date. This, at least pins a book's publication date to the relevant decade, but sometimes it leads to 'errors' of a sort. The British Library states:

Our House on Wheels.[1937]
The Caravan Family.[1938]
Our Camping Holiday.[1938]
Our Caravan.[1940]

The Caravan Family is made up of the other three books listed above so did Hillyard write the total compilation in one go and Blackie split off three books and separately published them? Or did she write over a couple of years and then a compiled version was published of the three books as a large single book? I favour the latter and that means the date for Our Caravan is problematic. But I think we can safely deduce 1936 or 1937 based on those accession dates. 

I have listed all the writings I could find by the author in case others wish to search for her work. Interestingly I did not find her credited in any magazines of the period in which she wrote, but maybe this is because she was a children's author. I shall leave others to go further and add to the list.

Our Caravan title page

Mary Dorothea Kelly (neé Hillyard) was born on 2 April 1886 in Stoodleigh, Devon to Arthur Hillyard (born c. 1846 Southam, Warwick, a Clergyman - 31 May 1919) and Ellen Augusta Hillyard (born c. 1847 in Oakford, Devon, died 6 July 1919). Mary had a brother Temple George Hillyard (a year older than her)  and a younger sister Mildred Ellen Grace Hillyard. In 1901 three servants and a Governess were living with the household in the parsonage at Upton Pyne (which is north-west of Exeter), and ten years later the census shows they had four servants at the parsonage,with Mary and Mildred still at home. Mary was 25 at this point in 1911. 

The year 1919 must have been a year of upheavals. She married around July 1919 (the year her Mother and Father died) and in 1939 she is still married and listed as having "Private means"  and her husband's occupation states 'Clerk in Holy Orders'. They had a gardener and two servants in the Rectory, Tiverton, Devon.

Mary's husband was the Revd. Evelyn Maitland Kelly (4 Feb 1887 - Salcombe, Devon - 12 Jan 1954 (aged 66), Oakford, Devon). He was the son of Reverend Maitland Kelly and Elfrida Blanche Carey (you can read more on the family here) . He appears to have been a boarder at Kelly College in 1901 (is the name coincidence?) and an assistant School Master on the Isle of Wight in 1911. Eight years later he married Mary. They had at least one child, Paul M. H. Kelly (born 28 July 1924). 

I wondered whether there might be some evidence of another child as Mary's probate was sorted by Anthony Arthur Hillyard Kelly (Schoolmaster), this might also explain why she died as a widow of "Neathwood Christow Devon" yet ended her days in Guildford. Mary died on 12 September 1959 in Guildford but was buried in St Peter's Churchyard, Oakford, Devon with her husband the Revd. Evelyn Maitland Kelly. Ironically when her husband was vicar of Oakford, she was only 3 miles from her birthplace.  She left a legacy of £7434/16/6.

 M. D. HILLYARD BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Peggy's Giant (illustrations by 'Peggy') London: A. & C. Black, 1920. [Available here] 
• Peggy and the Giant's Aunt. (illustrations by 'Peggy') London: A. & C. Black, 1921.
• The Exciting Family (illustrations by Agnes and Dorathea Kovalevsky) London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son [1927] - (Credited as M.D.Hillyard and E. M. Kelly)
• "Gooseberry jam" in Hunt the slipper and other stories. London: T. Nelson & Sons, [1928]
  
• Mary Was Five. London: T. Nelson & Sons, [1937]
• Our House on Wheels. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1937]
• Our Camping Holiday. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1938]
• The Caravan Family. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1938]
• Martin's Little House. London: T. Nelson & Sons, [1939]
• Our Caravan. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1940]
• Minikin's Visit. (drawings by A. H. Watson) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1953. - (Credited as M.D.Hillyard and E. M. Kelly)
• Minikin's New Home. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1954.
• Minikin and her Friends. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1955.
• Timothy, Minikin and all. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1956.
• A Treat for Minikin. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1958.

The paucity of images in this article is because I shall publish three more articles on the three books that make up The Caravan Family and the cover above is unique to the series (notice a chicken flees from the car as the latter comes over the bridge - with a church in the background) and I've included the title page for good measure. Here also is a listing of all the books with their story titles.

Story listing

Our House on Wheels, Our Camping Holiday, Our Caravan to follow soon