Talbot Wilfrid Ellison (1875 to 1947) wasn’t a performer, and his name wasn’t Talbot Wilfrid Ellison: he was the artist who worked for the short-lived Cambridge Graphic in 1900 and 1901. His lively illustrations enhance this website – we have used every circus drawing we have found in the bound volumes of the Graphic in the Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library. Ellison also illustrated other Cambridge entertainment reviews and sporting events, and drew satirical cartoons. He later had a long career as cartoonist for the Birmingham Evening Mail.

Who was Talbot Wilfrid (sometimes Wilfred) Ellison? He doesn’t appear under that name in the official record (censuses and birth, death, and marriage registers) until the 1921 census, where the family is to be found at 81 Oakfield Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham. In the 1939 wartime register he was recorded at 27 Melstock Road, Birmingham with wife Emily and daughter Patricia. His real name came to light when a search of the British Newspaper Archive produced this notice from page 3 of the Birmingham Evening Despatch, 30 August 1948, Ellison having died on 20 December 1947 from a cerebral haemorrhage:

Mr. Talbot Wilfred [sic] Ellison (or William Joseph Henry Worthy), of 27, Melstock-road, Birmingham, for over 40 years cartoonist of the ‘Birmingham Mail,’ left £4,378. net £4,310.

Back we went to the censuses and registers. William Worthy was born in Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire on 22 May 1875, to Alfred and Mary Worthy. Alfred was the local registrar: when Mary registered the birth on 30 July 1875, her husband completed the record.

In the 1881 census the family was at 9 River Terrace, St Neots. In 1891, William is missing from the census, not to be found anywhere, while the rest of the family are in St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge. Ten years later, aged 25, when we know he was working for the Cambridge Graphic (‘artist for black and white’ in the census), he was living with his parents at Blenheim Lodge, High Green, Great Shelford. Also present on census night (31 March 1901) was his brother Ellison and a visitor called Emily Birch, a 23-year-old costumier.

Mrs Muggins was a recurring character in Ellison’s cartoons for the Cambridge Graphic. Here she is helping her husband complete their return for the same census that shows Ellison at home in Great Shelford.

Ellison illustrated the review of JM Barrie’s The Wedding Guest at the New Theatre on page 5 of the Cambridge Graphic, 4 May 1901.

Fine Cricket at Fenner’s was the headline as Cambridge University scored 396 for 9 (Longman, 150) on the first day of their match against Yorkshire, Thursday 23 May 1901: ‘The weather was beautifully fine, though blustering, and there was a capital company.’ Ellison was on hand to capture the action (Cambridge Graphic, 25 May 1901). Cricket enthusiasts amongst our readership will want to know that the match finished in a draw on the Saturday afternoon as Yorkshire fell short of a last-innings target of 161, which they might well have reached had it not ‘been agreed to draw stumps at five o’clock, to allow the Yorkshiremen to get away by an early train’ (Cambridge Independent Press, 31 May 1901, page 5).

William Worthy and Emily Birch were married in her home town of Bishops Stortford in the summer of 1903 and in the 1911 census they are to be found in Birmingham with daughters Viola, aged 5 and Patricia, 10 months, and William’s 14-year-old niece Dorothy Willers. The census taker initially entered William’s nom de plume on the return, as can be seen here:

According to the Political Cartoon Gallery website, where his work may be found, ‘Talbot Ellison was the political cartoonist for the Birmingham Evening Mail between 1904 and 1947. Prior to that he had been the political cartoonist for the Newcastle Daily Chronicle. His sporting cartoons feature prominently in the National Football Collection.’ Ellison also features on the Chris Beetles Gallery website and all three of these sources are listed in our bibliography.