Genealogist helps build up a picture of mystery cartoonist
In our issue of June 27, we published a cartoon that appeared in the Kent Messenger 100 years ago, in 1919, and asked if anyone had any information on the cartoonist “S.Fulljames.”
He was responsible for 70-odd sketches from during and after the First World War found in both the KM and its sister paper, the South Eastern Gazette, by Alan Hodge from East Farleigh following a house clearance. But despite drawing the conclusion Mr Fulljames was a local man, due to references to councillors of the day, Maidstone Museum, the Tyrwhitt Drake Zoological Gardens and Maidstone United, we had no information about him.
That was until Gill Joye, a retired reference librarian and former chairman and archivist of the Goudhurst and Kilndown Local History Society, got involved. She said: “I am an experienced genealogist and family historian who likes a challenge, soIdecidedtohaveagoatidentifying the man.
“I eventually found a snippet from The Royal Magazine, volume 32, 1914, p288, which gives his address as 6 Hever Gardens, Reginald Road, Maidstone, and shows that he won third prize in a competition.
“Using this as a reference, I was able to find a First World War service record for a Spencer Fulljames with the same address. “He was in the Royal Army Service Corps from 1914 to 1919 and served in France.
“The 1939 register shows him and his wife, Dorothy, living at 90 Loose Road, Maidstone. “I also found a small snippet, via Google Books, in the Paper Maker and British Trade Journal 1940, to say he had been - or was - involved with someone else in something called the Ellnore Press, Fairmeadow, Maidstone. “He died on February 18, 1973, in Maidstone. According to the General Register Office, he had been born on May 8, 1892, so he was 80 when he passed away. “I’m afraid that I have not been able to find out anything about the major part of his life as a civilian – perhaps somebody else can help with this?”
Offers please! And perhaps somebody knows something about the Ellnore Press in Fairmeadow too?