DISTINGUISHED LIFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1057, 22 August 1930, Page 1

DISTINGUISHED LIFE

LINK WITH LONDON S ART WORLD DEATH OF MR. A. S. BOYD After a peaceful “Indian Summer,” spent In retirement at his home in Takapuna, Mr. Alexander Stuart Boyd, illustrator and artist, died last evening at the age of 76. Mr. Boyd had complained of pains and was, on medical advice, taken to hospital, where an operation was performed. He survived the operation but died later. m With the arrival in Auckland of Mr. Boyd and his talented wife, Mrs. Mary Stuart Boyd, the novelist, Auckland had a link with the scintillating and teeming literary world oT London’s eighties. Mr. Boyd, who was the illustrator of “The Graphic” and a member of the staff of "Punch," also illustrated for many famous authors and his London home was in -~*— - then the centre of the art and literary world of the Empire. Mr. Boyd illustrated, among other books, "Lowden Sabbath Morn,” by Stevenson, “Days of Auld Lang Syne and “Rabbi Saunderson.” by MacLaren, “GUian and The Dreamer” and "Shoes of Fortune,” by Munro, “Horace in Homespun,” by Haliburton, “Our Stolen Summer,” “A Versailles Christmas-Tide” and “The Fortunate Isles,” by Mrs. Stuart Boyd, "Wee MacGreegof” and “Jess and C 0.,” by Bell, “The Cottar’s Saturday Night,” by Burns and “Hamewith,” by Murray. Mrs. Boyd, while at St. John’s Wood, had also established a name by her reviews and general contributions to the better London magazines, including the famous Blackwood's. NOTED ARTIST FRIENDS The home of this clever couple was consequently filled with the leaders of the worlds in which they, too, were prominent, and their friends included Sir James Barrie, Bret Harte, W. Pett Ridge, W. W. Jacobs, William Caine, Jerome K. Jerome, Sir William Robertson Nicoll, Beatrice Harraden, Annie S. Swan and Anthony Hope. Among the artists who also frequented the little salon were Sir George Reid, David Murray, Sir Alfred East, R.A., Sir John Lavery, R.A., Sir Bernard Partridge, D. Y. Cameron, R.A.. Walter Craine, Lewis Baumer, and William Strang. Mr. Boyd was, himself, an artist, apart from his sterling work as an illustrator, and painted landscape and general subjects. As “Twym,” he was the author of humorous drawings in "Quiz” and “The Baillie of Glasgow.” Mr. Boyd, who was Glasgow-born, first came to New Zealand with Mrs Boyd, when she visited her sister, Mrs. John Burns, in Auckland. Returning from that first glimpse of what was to be their haven of rest, Mr. and Mrs. Boyd arrived in Samoa just at the time of the rising that led to Steven•son’s “A Footnote to History.” | Mr. Boyd yved at “Rewiti,” Williams 1 Street, Takapuna.