Cornish Gallery

The Ringers of Launcells Tower, Frederick Smallfield (1829-1915)

Oil on canvas, English School, 1887. This painting was inspired by the poem The Ringers of Launcells Tower by Rev. R.S. Hawker of Morwenstow in his book Cornish Ballads and Other Poems'. In this poem, the bell ringers who rang at the accession of George III in 1760 were still alive to ring at his golden jubilee in 1810. The church of Launcells is midway between Stratton and Bude. The picture was painted 77 years after George III's golden jubilee and so is a total reconstruction. There is, therefore, no possibility that the figures are actual portraits of the 1810 ringers. Nevertheless, Smallfield had visited the church tower before he started the painting but made certain alterations to the layout for artistic reasons. He also studied the bell ringers at his local church in Willesden, north west London, to get the action and the angle of the ropes correct. A watercolour version of this painting was exhibited at the Watercolour Society in 1878. Frederick Smallfield studied at the Royal Academy and subsequently exhibited there several times. He lived for most of his life in London and at Lee-on-Solent in Hampshire

© RIC

Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, Cornwall. Probably 1890s

The photograph shows a group of men waiting to go underground. The man on the right with the white coat is probably the lander or banksman. The man to his left, wearing the jacket and waistcoat, might be a mine Captain. Behind him is a man with a long beard, who has the look of a miner. The other three men wearing miners hats with candles attached look like visitors as there are few candles being carried and no tools. One man is wearing Cuban heeled boots. The man sitting with a chin beard and moustache looks similar to other photographs of Oliver Wethered, vice chairman of the Dolcoath Company. The other two young men to the left of picture are dressed in normal clothing. The earliest records of this mine show that it was being worked for copper in 1740, and probably earlier. It was nearly 300ft deep in 1746 and an extensive mine in 1778, when a section of its eastern part was published in Pryce's Mineralogis Cornubiensis. It closed ten years later, to reopen in 1799. In the next 120 years it became the largest and deepest mine in Cornwall, with its bottom level 3, 000ft below the surface. Its output of copper and tin ores to 1788 is thought to have been no less than 1, 2500, 000, pounds, of which copper alone realised some 450, 000 between 1740 and 1777. Between 1799 and 1920 its output amounted to over 9 million pounds, including income from sales of arsenic, silver and other minerals. The mine was in the dividend list for most of its working life, and shares, nicknamed Dollies, were the blue chip of the industry. Photographer: John Charles Burrow

© From the collection of the RIC

The Lennox-Boyd brothers. Around 1915

Studio photograph of Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd with his brothers. From left to right: George Edward Lennox-Boyd (1902-1943), Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd (1904-1983), Donald Breay Hague Lennox-Boyd (1906-1939), Francis Gordon Lennox-Boyd (1909-1944). The boys are dressed in outfits resembling First World War British Army officer uniforms. Born on 18th November 1904, Alan was the son of Alan Walter Lennox-Boyd and Florence Annie Begbie. Educated at Sherborne School, Dorset, and Christ Church, Oxford, he married Lady Patricia Florence Susan Guinness on 29th December 1938 and died on 8th March 1983. He held the office of Member of Parliament (Conservative) for Mid-Bedfordshire between 1931 and 1960, holding the positions of Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour in 1938, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1943, Minister of State for Colonial Affairs 1951-1952, Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, 1952-1954 and Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, 1954-1959. He served as Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War, was admitted to Inner Temple in 1941 and entitled to practise as a Barrister at Law. Appointed Privy Counsellor in 1951, he held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire between 1954 and 1960, was managing director of Arthur Guinness & Sons between 1959 and 1967 and appointed Companion of Honour in 1960. He was created 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton in September 1960 and that same year, his wife, Patricia, Viscountess Boyd, purchased Ince Castle in St Stephens by Saltash, Cornwall. In 1965, Viscount Boyd held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall. He died on 8th March 1983. The Boyd family lived at Ince Castle until 2018. George, a Major in the Highland Light Infantry, died in a military hospital in Scotland; Donald, a Captain in the Scots Guards, died in custody in Germany in events leading up to the Second World War; Francis, a Major in the Royal Scots Greys, was killed in action at Normandy, France, during the Second World War while leading 22nd Independent Parachute Company. Photographer: James Habgood, Boscombe

© From the collection of the RIC