Lunt Roberts (1894-1981) – British artist

 With thanks to Nick Lock of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum for finding this artist for us

Richard John Lunt Roberts was born in Secunderabad, Madras, India, on 28th August 1894. His father, Richard Roberts, was Welsh and he worked as a storekeeper on the Indian Railway. His mother, Gertrude Annie Lunt Roberts, was born in Australia to British parents.

In 1901 the family, including a younger brother and sister, lodged in a farmer's house in Aber, Caernarvonshire, Wales; by 1911 they had moved into a home of their own in Llandudno. 

Lunt Roberts joined the London Sketch Club, of which he later became President, in 1913, between then and 1964 was a cartoonist and illustrator. 

He joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers during the First World War, initially as a Private.  He was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant into the 6th (Carnarvonshire and Anglesey) Battalion on 24th June 1915 and served in Gallipoli. 

After the War Lunt  worked as an illustrator.  He married Hilda Plant in Lewisham in 1924. and died  in Kingston Upon Thames in 1981.

Gallipoli sketch and "An age of Invention" by Lunt Roberts

Sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD and https://ukcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Lunt_Roberts_(1894-1981)

Christopher David Williams RBA (7 January 1873 – 1934) - Welsh artist

 Mametz Wood, commemorating the Welsh during the Battle of the Somme July 1916 - a painting by Christopher Williams 

About four thousand men from the Welsh Division were killed or wounded in the attack on Mametz Wood that took place in July 1916, during the First Battle of the Somme.  The wood still stands today and there is a Memorial to the 38th Division nearby.   Mametz Wood was a large area, overgrown and well defended by experienced German soldiers.  The first attack on 7th July 1916 failed to reach the wood.   Welsh soldiers, who were expected to make an assault o n German lines, were machine-gunned as they moved across open fields. 

Born in Maesteg, Wales, Christopher's father Evan Williams wanted his son to study medicine and to be a doctor but Christopher had other ides.

Self portrait by
Christopher Williams

For a poem about the Welsh at Mametz Wood by Welsh poet Llewelyn Wyn Gfiffith, who served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on the Western Front, please see the Forgotten Poets of the First World War weblog post of 23rd June 2021.  The poem was found for us by Nick Lock of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum which is in Caernarfon Castle in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, North Wales.  To find out more and book a visit please visit their website https://www.rwfmuseum.org.uk/index.php

Arthur Jacob Lyons (1873 – 1948) – British artist

Born in Kensington in 1873 – birth registered in fourth quarter -  “The St Ives Times” reports Arthur as staying in the town in July 1914, having arrived from Paris, and described him as a "medalist of the Salon", after receiving a medal for a painting in 1909. He joined the British Red Cross when war broke out, but was later seconded into the Army as an administrator. 

Arthur's painting of a Red Cross nurse in a garden was painted while he was recovering from an illness at Osborne convalescent home during the First World War. He joined the British Red Cross when war broke out, but was later seconded into the Army as an administrator. 

https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?fname=Arthur+&sname=Lyons&id=139204&first=true&last=true

https://museumandarchives.redcross.org.uk/objects/10091