In 1881, Alfred married Mary Blanche Lockwood.
As special artist and correspondent to “The Sphere”, Alfred was assigned to the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York's 1901 tour of New Zealand.
He designed posters campaigning for women's suffrage and drew a weekly cartoon for Votes for Women from 1909, and was also regularly published in “The Illustrated London News”, “Boy's Own Paper” and “Punch”. With Laurence Housman, Alfred set up the Suffrage Atelier.
Alfred produced various artworks, cartoons and propaganda related to British efforts during the First World War.
From 11 September 1918 to March 1919, he held an honorary Captain's commission in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, NZEF, as official artist, painting the battle scenes in which the 1st NZRB figured. He was attached to Brigadier General Charles Melvill's headquarters and left London for France on 27 September 1918.
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| The Battle of Polygon Wood |
Alfred was a wood engraver, book illustrator and art critic, working for the “Manchester Guardian”, and for eight years was a member of Joseph Barnby's Royal Choral Society.
Amongst his inventions, Alfred patented improvements to vehicle and cycle wheels, improvements relating to the frames of velocipedes, a method for animating advertising hoardings in 1908–1912, improvements in flying machines, devised a model air-ship for the October 1905 readers of “The Boy's Own Paper”.
His son, Denis Colbron Pearse, (1883–1971) also became an illustrator.
The Suffrage Atelier was an artists' collective campaigning for women's suffrage in Britain. It was founded in February 1909 by Laurence Housman, Clemence Housman and Alfred Pearse. Clemence was a writer, illustrator, and wood engraver, and her brother Laurence was a fantasy writer. (A.E. Houseman was Clemence and Lawrence's brother.)
Sources:
Alfred Pearse, Captain, NZRB, 1918–19
Photo: Elliott & Fry
The Battle of Polygon Wood - a postcard from Original Drawing by A. Pearse, official NZ War Artist.
The New Zealand Rifle Brigade (Earl of Liverpool's Own), affectionately known as The Dinks, was formed on 1 May 1915 as the third brigade of the New Zealand Division, part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. During the First World War the Brigade fought in Egypt, against the Senussi, and then on the Western Front and was disbanded on 4 February 1919.
Sources: Find my Past, Free BMD, Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Rifle_Brigade_(Earl_of_Liverpool%27s_Own)
