Leonard Bentley
The London Police
This is a postcard published by C.W. Faulkner & Co Ltd of London E.C., and they proudly boast it is of British manufacture. The postcard was posted to Melksham in Wiltshire on May 8th 1911 from London, N.W.8. It was probably about a year old when posted. The illustration is by Ernest Ibbetson the Yorkshire born artist who specialised in depicting military life at the end of the 19th Century and was also an illustrator for boys’ magazines. He was trained at the Sir Hubert Von Herkomer art college in Bushey and was one of only 500 artists who were trained there during its twenty-year existence. Very little is known of his personal life and his political views, but I think he may have stated a particular view of the time in this illustration. The subject is very straightforward, a Police Officer holding up the traffic and a pretty young mother crossing the road with her two young children. The title is simple enough, “The London Police, Directing Traffic”, this was one in the series, “London Police” (See below). The extra meaning to the illustration is what the young woman is wearing on her white blouse, a purple and green corsage. The three colours were the colours of the “Women’s Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the Suffragette movement. White stands for purity, green for hope and a new life and purple for dignity and self-respect. Whether this was a cynical commercial decision to include the colours or a truly heartfelt belief in the cause is not known but many manufacturers of all sorts of things, Jewellery, fashion and even shoes included the colours to appeal to the suffragette market. The Police constable is wearing his No.1 uniform with white gloves which indicates a State Occasion, but this may have been artistic licence.
The London Police
This is a postcard published by C.W. Faulkner & Co Ltd of London E.C., and they proudly boast it is of British manufacture. The postcard was posted to Melksham in Wiltshire on May 8th 1911 from London, N.W.8. It was probably about a year old when posted. The illustration is by Ernest Ibbetson the Yorkshire born artist who specialised in depicting military life at the end of the 19th Century and was also an illustrator for boys’ magazines. He was trained at the Sir Hubert Von Herkomer art college in Bushey and was one of only 500 artists who were trained there during its twenty-year existence. Very little is known of his personal life and his political views, but I think he may have stated a particular view of the time in this illustration. The subject is very straightforward, a Police Officer holding up the traffic and a pretty young mother crossing the road with her two young children. The title is simple enough, “The London Police, Directing Traffic”, this was one in the series, “London Police” (See below). The extra meaning to the illustration is what the young woman is wearing on her white blouse, a purple and green corsage. The three colours were the colours of the “Women’s Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the Suffragette movement. White stands for purity, green for hope and a new life and purple for dignity and self-respect. Whether this was a cynical commercial decision to include the colours or a truly heartfelt belief in the cause is not known but many manufacturers of all sorts of things, Jewellery, fashion and even shoes included the colours to appeal to the suffragette market. The Police constable is wearing his No.1 uniform with white gloves which indicates a State Occasion, but this may have been artistic licence.