Fred May
(1891-1976), CartoonistArtist of 22 portraits
Fred May was a caricaturist and painter. May's earliest drawings were produced for the Liverpool Daily Post and North Eastern Daily Gazette. His first cartoons for the Tatler were sent home in 1917 from the trenches where he was serving as an infantry officer with the Green Howards. He was asked to provide caricatures of men on the Western Front between the shelling. He developed an acute, gentle and humorous style from the 1920s onwards, caricaturing personalities including Winston Churchill, who autographed his own likeness. May served again during the Second World War, when honoured with the Legion d'Honneur, and after the war he continued to work for the Tatler, but also the Graphic and Weekly Sketch and News Chronicle right up until his death in 1976.
by Fred May
ink, wash and white heightening, 1935
NPG 6207
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1920s-1930s
NPG D4056
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1921 or 1927?
NPG D4057
John William Beaumont Pease, 1st Baron Wardington
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1921?
NPG D7985
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1926 or 1936?
NPG D4055
Francis Bingham Mildmay, 1st Baron Mildmay of Flete
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1926
NPG D7983
Edward Charles Grenfell, 1st Baron St Just
by Fred May
pencil, brush and ink with white heightening, probably 1930s
NPG D18479
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1932
NPG D112
Sir (Richard) Woodman Burbidge, 2nd Bt
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1932
NPG D113
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, circa 1934
NPG D7986
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1935
NPG D4053
Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield, 1st Bt
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1935
NPG D4054
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1935
NPG D7979
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, published 22 May 1935
NPG D7980
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1935
NPG D7981
Sir (Richard) Woodman Burbidge, 2nd Bt
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1935
NPG D7984
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1936
NPG D4050
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1936
NPG D4051
David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarres
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1936
NPG D4052
Josiah Charles Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp of Shortlands
by Fred May
brush and ink with white heightening, 1936
NPG D4058
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Sean Bellew
23 September 2019, 01:13
Hello,
Fred May painted my Grandfather, LT Col John Grant Peckston OBE TD KSG - they were great friends and died within months of each other. My mother has Fred’s hand painted Christmas cards to my grandparents covering many years - sadly none are portraits (apart from St Nicholas!).
However, whilst doing a bit of research I came across an article from the Northern Echo about Fred, which you may find useful. https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7107539.talent-of-a-kindly-caricaturist-drawn-to-record-an-entire-generation/
Roger Newman Turner
06 December 2019, 10:46
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fred May contributed several cartoon collages to the quarterly organic farming magazine, The Farmer, 'published and edited from the farm' by my father, F Newman Turner. These were caricatures of some of the luminaries of the agricultural world attending the Royal Show or the London Dairy Show. I have the framed originals of two of these which featured my father as he had an exhibitors' stand at the shows.
I also have an original (unframed as yet) of the panel for a Food and Farming Any Questions? put on at the Kingsway Hall by my father's Whole Food Society in Autumn 1950 and chaired by Freddy Grisewood, for many years the presenter of the eponymous BBC radio programme. This shows caricatures of Grisewood, Ralph Wightman, Robert Henriques, Dr GE Breen, and my father. It appeared in the Winter 1950 edition of The Farmer.