Anon. Anglesey Voluntary Aid Detachments, Holyhead, North Wales

Edwardian Seaside: Character Studies at Llandudno & Anglesey 1912–13

This drawing forms part of a wonderful collection of late-Edwardian sketches that we have for sale dated 1912 to 1913. The anonymous artist was most likely local to the North Wales coast around Anglesey, painting the vibrant array of characters frequenting the region's promenades and harbours in the years immediately preceding the First World War.

The drawings are an amusing reflection of late-Edwardian society: a time of peace and prosperity, but also of deep class division and incipient mobilisation of the working class and of women in public life. The seaside resorts of Anglesey, Llandudno and Rhyl were fashionable holiday destinations, whilst also being coastal bases for naval military activity. As a result, our artist is able to capture a slice of life, drawing character studies—at times caricatural—of soldiers, sailors, priests, smartly dressed day trippers and colourful locals and vagrants. The sketches were clearly drawn from life, with the careful addition of specific place names and dates.

The collection is also of interest as a record of life on the eve of war. Whilst the outbreak of World War One came as surprise to much of the public, the drawings show evidence of the military and naval presence at Holyhead on Anglesey and Colwyn Bay, and also the Voluntary Aid Detachments set up by the War Office in 1909 to ensure enough nursing personnel in case of a war.

One drawing also documents the Suffragettes at Colwyn Bay in 1913. Holiday resorts were favourite settings for campaigns of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and in North Wales, Rhyl, Llandudno, and Colwyn Bay were amongst the most popular centres. Additionally, North Wales was the location of the Caernarfon Borough constituency of Lloyd George, a high profile target of WSPU militancy.