Painting of Leigh Church by Charles Stephen Meacham

Leigh Church by Charles Stephen Meacham ca. 1930
Leigh Church by Charles Stephen Meacham ca. 1930

CHARLES STEPHEN MEACHAM 1860-1940

In 2018, the Society purchased from Bernard Thompsett a painting of Leigh Church by the artist C S Meacham – Charles Stephen Meacham.

I was interested to learn a little more about the artist and, so, I did some research.  The first problem, researching on-line, was that I discovered that there appeared to be two Charles Meachams who were artists and some of the paintings are accredited to one or both of them, depending what ‘art’ website you look at.   There is Charles Stephen Meacham born Lichfield 1860 and a Charles Meacham (no middle name) born Catford 1900, but who was raised in Lichfield.  I believed that the paintings by Charles Stephen Meacham had been wrongly attributed to the other ‘Charles Meacham’.  But as the paintings came up on various ‘art’ websites, the signature of the ‘real’ C S Meacham, which corresponded to that on the painting of Leigh Church, was clear.  But I could not prove I was right in my assumption.

The Meacham name is very common in Lichfield and in Staffordshire, where Charles Stephen Meacham, son of Thomas Meacham, was born in 1860 and where Charles Meacham, son of Percy, born Catford 1900, was raised.  (Percy also came from Lichfield).   I did try to see if there was a connection between the two families and searched back three or four generations, which is about the most you can do accurately on-line, but could find no link – if there is one, it is much further back in time.

However, our artist, Charles Stephen Meacham, was born in Lichfield on 26 December 1860, and baptised there on 27 January 1861. His parents were Thomas Meacham, also born in Lichfield ca. 1840 and Mary.  Charles had other siblings.  His father was a brewer’s labourer.   Charles himself became involved in the brewing trade.  In 1885 he married Florence Wood in Staffordshire.   Florence, herself, was an artist and her father was Samuel Peploe Wood, a sculptor, her uncle, Thomas Peploe Wood, a painter.  Charles and Florence had three daughters, Lillian Florence, Hilda Isabel and Gwendoline Emily and one son, Alan Illingworth.  In 1891 we find that Charles, Florence and two of his daughters are living in Maidstone where he is employed as a brewer.

The family then disappears from the censuses – they are not in the country in 1901 or 1911, because in about 1899 they moved abroad to South Africa.  They can be found on passenger lists making several voyages to South Africa over the next twenty or so years.  Whilst in South Africa, Charles indulged his other passion which was painting and did many paintings of scenes in South Africa.  He inaugurated the South African Society of Artists – his daughter Gwendoline went to Hamilton House School at Tunbridge Wells and studied art under Walter Sikert in London.   There was a family home at Scaur Topp near Dumfries.  If you put his name into the internet, you will find paintings by him of Scottish landscapes and many of South Africa.

From the passenger lists, it appears the family did return to the UK on many occasions.  In August 1926, when departing from London to South Africa (and Australia), their last place of residence in the UK is given as Rustington, Littlehampton.  By this time, Charles is retired and aged 65.   Of interest, to us in Leigh, is that in May 1927 when arriving back in England from Australia their address is Hildenborough, Kent and Charles describes himself as an artist.  This is why I believe that it is this Charles Stephen Meacham whose signature is on our painting of Leigh Church and it was probably painted around that time.  It also appears that Charles Meacham gave painting lessons to the Leigh vicar, the Rev. Weston and also attended his funeral at Leigh in July 1926.  So he was already living in the area – the Rustington address given being perhaps where the Meachams were staying prior to the departure from the UK.  In fact, Charles Meacham was exhibiting in the Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells area in 1922 as reported in the local press.

In the 1930s (electoral registers) show Charles living in Surrey, at Hildacot, Godstone Green and he is living there at the time of the ‘1939 Register’, where Charles is described as retired brewer/artist/painter.

Charles Stephen Meacham died aged 79 in 1940.   His probate entry records him as living at Godstone Green, dying 8 October 1940, although the probate was at Llandudno.  His executors were his widow, Florence Peploe Meacham, Croudson William Barnish (the husband of his daughter Belle – Hilda Isabel) and Walter Robert Howe Pringle.  He left an estate of just over £6,000.

As previously mentioned, many of the paintings of C S Meacham are listed on the internet, but some are incorrectly attributed to Charles (S) Meacham b. 1900 Catford.  Examples you will see are:

Bottom of London Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent (Old Forge):  Oil on Board – at Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery.  Gift.  Accession no. 1955.10.1   (Art UK website)

Landscape, Mountain and Lake: Oil on Canvas  35x44cm.  Collection:  Dumfries & Galloway Council at the Gracefields Art Cetnre.  Accession No. DGCAc192R  (Art UK Website)

Helford Creek in Cornwall: Oil on Board.  Accredited to Charles S Meacham, born 1900 Catford, but I think this is incorrect.  (Bonhams.com)

Invaluable website:

Village Scene, by Charles Meacham born 1900.  But the signature is clearly C S Meacham b. 1860 (identical to that of Leigh Church).

And there are several on the ‘Invaluable’ Website which are of South Africa and we know that Charles Stephen Meacham went to South Africa in about 1899, even though the website attributes them to a Charles S Meacham, but born 1900.

The fact that Charles Meacham born 1900 Catford was also ‘an artist’ explains the misunderstanding.  However, this Charles was given no middle name, none shows on any of the records available on-line.    His family were printers and stationers.  His father, Percy James Meacham, came from Lichfield and his grandfather, Frederick Wilder Meacham, was a printer and stationer, an occupation in this family through several generations.  Because his mother died, probably at his birth, Charles is found in the 1901 census (and 1911 census) living with his grandparents, Frederick and Elizabeth in Lichfield in 1900 and 1911.  In 1918 he enlisted and gives his address as 43 Trent Valley Road, Lichfield.  His army records are available to view at ancestry.com.  He is still in Lichfield in the 1939 Register, living with his aunts Ada and Amy.  This Charles describes himself as an art master in the 1939 Register and in fact, Artist Biographies British and Irish Artists of the 20th Century describe Charles Meacham as “Illuminator, poster designer, painter and illustrator born Catford . . . who studied at Birmingham School of Art.”  Another website goes further to say born Catford Kent, having studied art at Birmingham Central School for Arts & Crafts and that he was a part-time teacher at Bourneville School of Art and Wolverhampton School of Arts & Crafts.  Exhibited at Birmingham, Liverpool, Royal College of Art, Royal Institute of Art.    This all adds to the confusion, but in fact there was only one Charles Stephen Meacham, who was the artist, born 1860, and who painted the pictures listed above and others than we find on the internet under this name.

After posting my item on Charles Stephen Meacham on the Leigh Historical Society website in April 2020, I was contacted by Janet Gunn, his great grand-daughter, corroborating what I had found and who gave me further information about Charles and his family and said that a lot of images on the web are clearly by her great grandfather.  She also said that he had notified the webmasters’ emails about this, but to no avail.  Therefore, hopefully, this article on our website will reinforce this when people search the name of this artist.

This has in fact been the case when the Society was recently contacted by Irene Goward who has an oil painting of a cottage belonging to her great grandparents – in Hildenborough.  The painting is dated 1922 (has the same frame as the above painting of Leigh Church).  The location in Hildenborough is the junction of Coldharbour Lane and Tonbridge Road.  Not very clear, but here is a photograph of the painting:

 

Photograph of a painting by C S Meacham, 1922, showing Hildenborough at the corner of Coldharbour Lane and Tonbridge Road.
Photograph of a painting by C S Meacham, 1922, showing Hildenborough at the corner of Coldharbour Lane and Tonbridge Road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

n.b.  there is more background information in our archive on Charles Stephen Meacham.

If anyone has any further information or can clarify or correct any of the above do please contact the Society.

Joyce Field (original article April 2020, updated October 2020)

Sources:
Censuses 1841-1911 ancestry.com
1939 Register (at Findmypast)
Passenger Registers: ancestry.com
Wikitree website: has biography of Charles Stephen Meacham 1860-1940 – and family photograph
Art websites including: Art Uk; Arcadja; Invaluable.
Janet Gunn, great grand-daughter of Charles Stephen Meacham