Raymond Sheppard and Our House on Wheels

Our House on Wheels cover
An idyllic scene

I recently wrote up a brief life of Mary Dorothea Hillyard Kelly and introduced the book The Caravan Family. That book contains three books one of which I wish to cover today: Our House on Wheels.

This book is the thinnest of the three titles but has some lovely Raymond Sheppard illustrations. All three books and the compiled version do not have page numbers. The stories are:

1. Magic carpet
2. Really Off!
3. Another Caravan
4. To The Sea
5. The Cave Adventure
6. Friends

"Good News!"
Mum brings letter to the table and three children look excited

Our House on Wheels title page
The car drives the caravan downhill on a  country road

Dad tells the children the holiday is cancelled but...

Paul said, "it's going to be real magic carpet!"

Tony and Colin, the dog look out the window in excitement

"Really in the country"
The three children swim in a stream

"Getting lunch ready"
Mum hands a roast chicken to her daughter

Paul comes out from behind a tree and spies an old gypsy caravan

"Paul makes new friends"

"Paul in the “corn house”"

 "Another halt by the wayside"

"What a place to play"
Patsy waves to the boys as they pick flowers

"Oh, Mummie, we went in a cave”
Patsy waves from the rowing boat to her Mum on the cliff

Patsy and her brother go crabbing with nets

"Exploring the caves"
The children row the boat into a cave

"Through the big woods"
The car comes uphill through the woods

Original art - notice bright colours!

"A shelter from the storm"
The two boys climb a ladder to a hayloft

 “Have you ever been in an aeroplane?”
The kids and dog talk with their new friend in the hayloft

 “I'm off the world looking at a map!”
The two seater prop aeroplane flies high

Paul kneels on the rear seat and looks out rear window

Endpaper: "A happy halt"

Other titles in the series:

The Caravan Family containing:

• Our House on Wheels
  
• Our Camping Holiday
• Our Caravan
  

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

Raymond Sheppard and Round the Year Stories: Winter

 

Round the Year Stories: Winter dustjacket

Some years ago I got an email from the comic artist and book illustrator Ron Tiner. We shared an interest in Sheppard and also Frank Bellamy. He attached an image which I identified for him as originally being published in Round the Year Stories: Autumn. He wrote:

Do you know where this illustration is from I wonder? I borrowed a copy of the little book by Blyton in which it featured, (along with several other impressive colour pieces) very briefly several years ago, and scanned this, but it’s got a tartan pattern all over it - which I don’t understand. I should like to have a decent scan of it if I could find out where it was published. 

That pattern, I think the pattern he mentions is "moiré" but don't ask me to explain it. I've just noticed if I do NOT 'descreen' when scanning, this occurs. Anyway back to the issue at hand. Ron's reference to Enid Blyton threw me. But I have confirmed the image was from Round the Year Stories: Autumn which I've shared already but that prompted me to finish this series of books off.

The fact that the author Maribel Edwin, being of Scottish origin, had her book reviewed in the Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin review; and Forfar and Kincardineshire advertiser. (24 November 1939) comes as no surprise:

Stories of animals encountered during the winter are to be found in "ROUND THE YEAR STORIES: THE WINTER BOOK" (2/6), by Maribel Edwin, daughter of the late Professor Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen. The delightful nature drawings are the work of Raymond Sheppard

and the Library World of 1940 liked it too:

This completes the " Round the Year " series and deals with the months of December, January and February, pointing out the particular beauties of Nature at this time of the year. In the short Stories of Eels, Deer, Cats, Foxes, Salmon, Mice, Birds, etc., young children will learn much of the Wild Life of this Country during the Winter. There are many illustrations in black and white, and four coloured plates, and the book is printed in good bold type.

Round the Year Stories: Winter Frontis.
Tabby cat

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.15
An eel catches a frog

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.21
Four fallow deer in woods - one fallen

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.22
Fallow deer in woodland

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.29
Mistle-thrush and magpie

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.35
Tabby cat chasing a mouse

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.43
Robin flies from horse's nose-bag

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.47
Red squirrel drops a cone

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.49
Fox terrier chases squirrel

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.55
Great tit lands on milk bottle

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.63
Fox chased by two dogs in snow

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.69
Dunnock on branch

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.77
Seven young salmon and adult salmon

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.78
Salmon leaps a waterfall

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.85
Terrier and badger fighting

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.91
One rabbit separates from the group as weasel appears

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.99
Mouse sits up in light from window

There are some gorgeous colour and black and white illustrations there.  Some of them have come up for auction over the years, and I've captured the auctioneers' photos to share here

Page 22

Page 47

Notice how bright the colours are here compared to my scans of the published versions. The next one was of "Rattle" the dog fighting Brock the badger - note the spelling mistake on the back of the artwork.

Page 85

Reverse of page 85 artwork

Christine Sheppard has the proof copies of two pages which I've included here

Proof of page 15

Proof of page 91

Some of the illustrations from the series of four books were reprinted in: 

Read and Remember (Edited by Richard Wilson B. A. D.Litt., Nelson, 1940) which showed colour illustrations of (frontispiece) the woodpecker in colour, labelled "The Bird who Laughs" (- see Summer), the black and white image of the woodpecker (p.53 - see Summer) and finally the squirrel dropping a fir cone. The book - like the one below - is a school reader and contains prose, science articles, poetry and history all in large sprint simple language.

Then in Things New and Old (Richard Wilson & John Harvard-Watts, [1945], (Book of Delight No. 5) Thomas Nelson we see on page 80 "a heron in flight" in colour (see Autumn); page 112 "Lapwings are called partial migrants" (see Spring) and finally on page 176 "A parent kingfisher feeding its young" (see Summer). The book is sub-titled "Reading in prose and poetry" and is a school reading book.

 

Read and Remember, pp.92-93

Finally Nelson got good value for money from Raymond Sheppard as all four seasons were reprinted by Nelson in 1950 in one volume with a new cover by Sheppard.

Round the Year Stories 1950

These books are relatively easy to purchase online with alternate covers. Finally to round up, Ron Tiner mentioned Enid Blyton and it appears he was right that she wrote "Round the year stories" illustrated by Kathleen Nixon. So that explains the confusion!

Enid Blyton book covers by K. Nixon

 Here's a link to all four Edwin versions:

• Round the Year Stories: Spring with a brief biography and bibliography
  
• Round the Year Stories: Summer with a further biography
• Round the Year Stories: Autumn
• Round the Year Stories: Winter
• Round the Year Stories (all four seasons)

 

Christmas bonus - Auctions

"Breakfast on the road" from The Caravan Family
- Original art

Two auction houses have Raymond Sheppard artwork for sale. I thought I'd quickly add them here for reference and our enjoyment. It also reminded me that I haven't uploaded anything about M. D. Hillyard's "The Caravan Family" series. So look forward to that in the New Year.

These three original artworks have come up before from the same auctioneers - Hannams. Interestingly they have omitted any mention of where they were published - which I let them know last time - and watercolour is now listed as gouache. Raymond Sheppard used both but I would not like to state certainly which medium he used here.

Title: Raymond Sheppard (1913-1958) Gouache on board "Snowy walk"43 x 30 cm.
Auction:  Estimate: £80-£120 [SOLD:  £60]
Seller: Hannam's Auctioneers
Date of auction: 3 to 6 Jan 2022 (Lot 3359)
Size: 43 x 30cm

"Through the big woods" from The Caravan Family
- Original art

Title: RAYMOND SHEPPARD (1913-1958) GOUACHE ON BOARD "FOREST HOLIDAY"43 X 30 CM.
Auction:  Estimate: £80-£120 [SOLD:  £240]
Seller: Hannam's Auctioneers
Date of auction: 3 to 6 Jan 2022 (Lot 3361)
Size: 43 x 30cm

"Full Speed Around!" from The Caravan Family
- Original art

Title: RAYMOND SHEPPARD (1913-1958) GOUACHE ON BOARD " FAIRGROUND RIDE"43 X 30 CM.
Auction:  Estimate: £80-£120 [SOLD:  £100]
Seller: Hannam's Auctioneers
Date of auction: 3 to 6 Jan 2022 (Lot 3360)
Size: 43 x 30cm

The other auction I mentioned is of amphibians of various sorts from Burston & Hewett - the caroline Gee Collection.

Amphibians

Title: Raymond Sheppard, 2 sheets of pencil sketches, newts and frogs, 24cm x 34cm, Exhibition labels.
Auction:  Estimate: £50-£100 [SOLD £50]
Seller: Burstow & Hewett
Date of auction: 25 Jan 2022 (Lot 124)
Size: 24 x 34cm

The description:

Raymond Sheppard, 2 sheets of pencil sketches, newts and frogs, 24cm x 34cm, Exhibition labels verso, framed (2)
 

Whilst on the subject of auctions, there's a lovely watercolour on eBay that I've been tracking for a while. 

The Mill Pond, Dorchester-on-Thames

The current reduction in price makes this very attractive to me, but I think I have enough artwork already.  It's being sold by Claire 007 Antiques of Harleston, Norfolk. She describes it thus:

DESCRIPTION-
I have up for sale a fabulous water colour by renowned artist Raymond Sheppard. The painting is titled "The Mill Pool" Dorchester-on-Thames.
Painted while he was serving in the RAF in WW2.
The scene is quite off the beaten track near a hamlet called Overy and the mill pool is round the corner from Overy Farmhouse.

It's currently £297.50 "Buy It Now" and was £595.00, as I said, a real bargain in my opinion.

And finally there's another that has remained at the same price (starting bid £985) for quite a while

"Courting leopards

Titled Raymond Sheppard 1913-1958 - “Courting Leopards “Pastel 1950 -21 x 32cm this gorgeous painting is being sold by stuart9044 who is based in Hitchin. 

 

Raymond Sheppard and a few snow scenes!

Boy's Own Paper December 1957, p.22

I've shown some Christmas, and snow scenes previously, and was wondering what to show you next. This time I started by looking for snow scenes and tripped over a couple in Boy's Own Paper. That led to this group of published images.

In Boy's Own Paper (December 1957 we have a story called "Valley of the Bear" by John Bancroft. Page 22 has the caption "Rearing on its haunches it struck out violently, all the power of nearly half a ton of bone, muscle and flesh behind the blow". Raymond Sheppard shows his command of animal drawing here, with the bear drawing back its lips in a snarl while rearing over the two men in snow, its feet planted firmly apart. It's interesting how the Art Editor has added the border to the text and run it through the artwork.

John Bancroft wrote quite a few stories and articles for Boy's Own Paper, and was even quoted as "John Bancroft of the "Boy's Own Paper" on the covers of at least two of his books. It appears he was born in 1912 and died in 1996. A blurb found online states:

John Bancroft lives in Devon. He is a regular writer for Boy's Own Paper, is an experienced reviewer of books for young people, and has written many radio scripts for the B.B.C. He specialises in adventure stories for teenagers, particularly boys, and has further books in preparation.

I searched the BBC Radio Times listings but couldn't find a "J. Bancroft" or "John Bancroft" listed and then became suspicious. That led me to searching every way I know and then I found the answer. I really should start all searches on my friend Steve Holland's BearAlley blog. John Bancroft was none other than Alan C. Jenkins who wrote an awful lot for BOP.

Here is a partial bibliography of his works under that pseudonym, John Bancroft. 
 

• Guardian of Honour, (Illustrated by Grace Huxtable), London: Macmillan & Co, 1961.
• The Ring of Truth (Illustrated by Grace Huxtable), London: Macmillan & Co, 1962.
• The Borodin Affair, London:Epworth Press, 1966
   
• "The Nelson Touch" The Boy’s Own Paper May 1955
• "The Ring o’ Bells", The Boy’s Own Paper December 1955
• "Kaarpa the Ermine",The Boy’s Own Paper March 1956
• "The Easter Egg" (Competition Story), The Boy’s Own Paper April 1956
• "Spring Comes to Dartmoor", The Boy’s Own Paper May 1956
• "The Easter Egg" (Competition Results), The Boy’s Own Paper July 1956
• "The Orang-utan Run", Parts 1, 2 and 3 The Boy’s Own Paper September - November 1956
  
• "Lets Watch Seals", The Boy’s Own Paper May 1957
• "Arrears of Rent", The Boy’s Own Paper September 1957
• "Plot the course of Roaring Stags", The Boy’s Own Paper October 1957
• [Unknown] , The Boy’s Own Paper August 1958
  
• [Unknown] , The Boy’s Own Paper February & November 1959
  "Guardian of Honour, The Boy’s Own Paper December 1959
• [Unknown] , The Boy’s Own Paper February 1960
• [Unknown] , The Boy’s Own Paper Jan & Aug 1961
• "The Borodin Affair, The Boy’s Own Paper February 1965
  

As we are talking about John Bancroft, here's another story by him illustrated by Sheppard (no snow this time!)

Boy's Own Paper September 1957, p.42-43

 "Arrears of Rent", appeared in Boy’s Own Paper September 1957 issue and shows "The vixen swept in snarling towards the badger's formidable jaws". The badger is defending a dead rabbit against the fox. Again we see here a naturalist's eye and Sheppard too has that perfect knowledge of animals and their individual characteristics.

Let's move onto another author

Boy's Own Paper February 1958 pp.18-19

Boy's Own Paper of February 1958 has a story illustrated by Raymond Sheppard "The Moon of the Crusted Snow" by Eric Acland. Captioned "The voice of his rifle brought an avalanche of whiteness" it shows am Obijwe hunter in a beaver-skin hat shooting at four foxes who are after a fallen deer in the snow.

One of Acland's early books lists him as a "writer and lecturer on military history". He has  the rank of Captain when writing the 1937 "Princess Elizabeth". St. Andrews College (of Aurora, Ontario) in-house journal in 1944 says:

"Lieut. -Col.  Eric  Acland,  E.D.  ('l9-'20 [sic?])  has  been  appointed  a  Deputy Director  of  Military  Intelligence  in  charge  of  a  special  wing  at  National  Defence Headquarters,  Ottawa.  He  has  served  overseas  on  special  duty  and  prior  to  the war  was  on  the  editorial  staff  of  The  [Toronto] Evening  Telegram"

In 1946 they also mention, in the old boy's section: "Lt.-Col.  Eric  Acland  ('19-'24),  since 1944 Deputy Director of Military Intelligence at National Defence Headquarters, has now  retired  from  the  army". But it didn't last long as in the same journal in 1953: "Lt.-Col.  Eric  Acland  ('19-'24)  has  been  elected  Vice-President  of  the Canadian  Military  Intelligence  Association". A 1933 publication published a poem and cited it was taken from "Regimental Journal of the South Wales Borderers, and is reproduced from ‘‘Bugle Notes" by Eric Acland".

I also learned that 

"in 1940 under Lieutenant Eric Acland, [M13 was set up] its main concern was counter-espionage and security with respect to Army personnel and classified information. It maintained close liaison with U.S. Military Intelligence (G-2), British Security Coordination, and Britain’s MI 5. Its primary job was to keep aggressive watch on Canadian soldiers of suspected subversive backgrounds or intentions"

There is also an Eric Acland in the Aylmer, Quebec area, as Wikipedia lists him as a "pre-amalgamation Mayor" from 1965–1967. Eric Acland married in August 1968 to Lois Jennings Edwards at  Aylmer, Quebec. I wondered cautiously if I was looking at two men but I'm sure the later short stories certainly reflect the same sensibilities as the Boy's Own story from 1958.

ERIC ACLAND BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Long Live the King; George V--King and Emperor; Prince and Sovereign--Edward VIII by Eric Acland and Ernest Henry Bartlett. Toronto: John C. Winston. 1936
• The House of Windsor, George V to George VI. by Eric Acland and Ernest H. Bartlett. Toronto: John C. Winston Company, [1937]
• The Princess Elizabeth.by Eric Acland. Toronto: John C. Winston Company [1937]
  
• The House of Windsor : George V to George Vi Royal tour ed. by Eric Acland and Ernest Henry Bartlett. Toronto: Dominion Book and Bible House., 1939
• "The Girl With the Teal Blue Eyes" in Maclean's 15 October 1949
  
• A Tour of Historic Aylmer Quebec = Un Voyage Au Passé Historique D'aylmer.  by Eric Acland and Aylmer and District Arts Association. 1966. 
• Adventure Westward (illustrations by Merle Smith). Camden N.J: T. Nelson. 1967
• Drums of Niagara; an Adventure Story of Early Canada Toronto: T. Nelson (Canada). 1967
• Christ-Church Aylmer-Quebec 1843-1968 by Eric Acland and Don Ritchie.1967
• "Man-Gods Visit Little Mountain" in Boy's Life August 1969
  
• "Twenty Feathers" in Boy's Life May 1971
• "Christmas Bells" in Boy's Life December 1971
• "Windigo of Greed" in Boy's Life February 1972
• "Wings of Spring" in Boy's Life  June 1973
• "Maheengun, My Brother" in Boy's Life August 1974 
• "The Poacher Hunt" in Boy's Life March 1976

The mystery is sort of solved in the 23 August 1982 issue of Maclean's magazine. Julie Van Dusen's tragic report tells us that the unfortunate Acland, on a regular visit to the Old General Store in Aylmer, the town of which he was voted mayor twice, met a belligerent policeman who pushed him, leading to his hospitalisation at the age of 76 and his subsequent death after 45 days. So we now know he was born c.1906 and died 1982. A tragic story considering how Boy's Life presented one of his stories in 1971 (May):

To read a story by Eric Acland ("Twenty Feathers," page 28) is to know that he knows whereof he writes, so it's hardly surprising to learn that his varied and distinguished career in the service of our neighbor to the northly surprising to learn that his varied and distinguished career in the service of out neighbor to the north includes more Iban a decade as senior administrative officer of Canada's Department of Indian Affairs. During World War II Colonel Acland was his country's deputy director of military intelligence, in charge of counter-intelligence operations. He resigned his government post in 1963 to devote his time to writing—which had been his profession prior to World War 11—and is the author of two books. Drum of Niagara and Adventure Westward, both historical fiction for young people. "Man-Gods Visit Little Mountain" (August 1969) first introduced BL readers to the woods wisdom of Walks-Upright, the Ojibwa guide.