Frederic Villiers (23 April 1851 – 5 April 1922) was a British
war artist and
war correspondent.
[ Along with William Simpson and Melton Prior, Villiers was one of the most notable 'special' artists of the later 19th century. He may have been the model for the ]Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...
war-artist character, Dick Heldar in ''The Light that Failed
''The Light That Failed'' is the first novel by the Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling, first published in ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' in January 1891. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events through ...
.''
Biography
Born in London, England
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
on 23 April 1851, Villiers was educated in France at Guînes
Guînes (; vls, Giezene, lang; pcd, Guinne) is a commune in the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais. Historically it was spelt ''Guisnes''.
On 7 January 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a French pioneer in hydrogen-balloon flight, comple ...
situated in the Pas-de-Calais. Between 1869 and 1870, he was an art student at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and in South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
, and in the following year at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1876 while walking down Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its root ...
, he noticed a crowd reading a poster of an evening paper stating that Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
had declared war on Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. He immediately decided to contact the paper, ''The Graphic
''The Graphic'' was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Ltd. Thomas's brother Lewis Samuel Thomas was a co-founder. The premature death of the latt ...
,'' offering his services as a war artist. The paper took him up on his offer and it was the beginning of a long career covering wars and conflicts around the globe.
Having reported on the Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histo ...
in 1877 and witnessed the events at the Battle of Plevna, he traveled to Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to cover the Second Afghan War
The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the ...
that had broken out in 1878. Here he befriended Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari
Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari (4 July 1841 – 3 September 1879) was an Italian-British military administrator.
Cavagnari was the son of Count Louis Adolphus Cavagnari, of an old family from Parma in the service of the Bonaparte family, b ...
who gave the artist the pens that were used to sign the Treaty of Gandamak
The Treaty of Gandamak (Dari: معاهده گندمک, Pashto: د گندمک تړون) officially ended the first phase of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Mohammad Yaqub Khan ceded various frontier areas to Britain while retaining full control of ...
. A world cruise followed in which he visited British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
where he dined with the Viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning " ...
, Lord Lytton at Simla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, th ...
, travelling on to Sydney, Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
, Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
and San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, and in 1882 was in Egypt to cover the Anglo-Egyptian War
The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...
; he was present at Battle of Tel-el-Kebir
The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British a ...
. In July 1882 he was a guest alongside rival journalist Moberly Bell on board HMS Condor when its commander Lord Charles Beresford attacked Fort Marabut during the Bombardment of Alexandria
The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882.
Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of ...
.
The following year saw him in Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
to cover the coronation of Tsar Alexander III
Alexander III ( rus, Алекса́ндр III Алекса́ндрович, r=Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 18 ...
but he was soon back in North Africa, this time to provide sketches of the fighting in the Sudan during the Gordon relief expedition. He covered the Serbo-Bulgarian War
The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War ( bg, Сръбско-българска война, ''Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna'', sr, Српско-бугарски рат, ''Srpsko-bugarski rat'') was a war between the Kingdom of Ser ...
in 1886, the Third Anglo-Burmese War
The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...
of 1887, the First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ...
of 1894–95, and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.
In 1898, he was one of the artists sent to cover the campaign in Sudan which culminated at Battle of Omdurman
The Battle of Omdurman was fought during the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan between a British–Egyptian expeditionary force commanded by British Commander-in-Chief ( sirdar) major general Horatio Herbert Kitchener and a Sudanese army of the ...
. Villiers brought along an early cine-camera and was filming when an explosion caused the boat to rock in the Nile River, tipping over the apparatus. His other campaigns included the Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
where he accompanied the Kimberley Relief Column.
During the Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, Villiers was embedded with Japanese troops at the Battle of Port Arthur
The of 8–9 February 1904 marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Japanese destroyers on the neutral Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur, Manchuria, and continued with an e ...
as a reporter for ''The Illustrated London News
''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...
''. Few other illustrators or cameramen were willing to approach the front lines as closely as Villiers, and many of his sketches were published in various newspapers and books during and after the war.[Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 409.] However, during First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Villiers was particularly frustrated during the opening months for not being allowed to go near the front
Villiers worked primarily for ''The Graphic
''The Graphic'' was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Ltd. Thomas's brother Lewis Samuel Thomas was a co-founder. The premature death of the latt ...
'' but also supplied illustrations to ''Black and White'' as well as serving as a special correspondent of ''The Standard''; he also contributed illustrations to the ''English Illustrated Magazine
''The English Illustrated Magazine'' was a monthly publication that ran for 359 issues between October 1883 and August 1913. Features included travel, topography, and a large amount of fiction and were contributed by writers such as Thomas Hardy ...
'' and ''The Idler''. He counted among his friends, Archibald Forbes and John Alexander Cameron, who was killed in the Gordon Relief Expedition; he was also a friend of the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
and was invited on at least one occasion to go hunting with the Prince in Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. Villiers exhibited two paintings at the Royal Academy, the first in 1882 entitled 'The road home; the return of an Imperial brigade from Afghanistan', and in the following year 'Fighting Arabi with his own weapons; an incident of the Battle of Tel el-Kebir'.
He was awarded twelve medals and war decorations over his career, including awards from Russia, Romania, the Egyptian Khedive's Star
The Khedive's Star was a campaign medal established by Khedive Tewfik Pasha to reward those who had participated in the military campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan between 1882 and 1891. This included British forces who served during the 1882 Anglo- ...
, and the Serbian Order of Takova.
Villiers gave frequent illustrated lectures and published several autobiographical works describing his experiences at the front.
He died on 5 April 1922.
Bibliography
*
* "My recent journey from the Nile to Suakim," ''Journal of the Society of Arts'', 4 February 1898, pp. 233–240.
* ''Pictures of Many Wars'' (1902)
*
*
*
* ;
Further reading
* Bottomore, Steve, "Frederic Villiers - war correspondent," ''Sight and Sound'', Vol. XLIX, No. 4, Autumn 1980, pp. 250–255.
*
* Compton, Roy, "Mr. Frederic Villiers," ''The Idler'', Vol. XII, No. 11, September 1897, pp. 239–255.
* Hodgson, Pat. (1977). ''The War Illustrators''. New York: Macmillan.
* Kowner, Rotem. ''Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War''. The Scarecrow Press (2006).
Notes
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, Frederic
1851 births
1922 deaths
Artists from London
English illustrators
British war artists
British war correspondents
War correspondents of the Russo-Japanese War
War correspondents of the Balkan Wars
War correspondents of World War I
19th-century war artists