Blue Plaque for Alfred Bestall, Illustrator of Rupert Bear

Alfred Bestall (1892-1986), best known as artist and writer of Rupert Bear stories, was commemorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque at 58 Cranes Park, Surbiton, London, at 2pm on 26 May 2006.  Among those present at the unveiling ceremony was Caroline Bott, Alfred Bestall's God-daughter and biographer.

58 Cranes Park was Bestall’s home from 1936 to 1966, and it was while living here that he produced over 250 Rupert Bear tales.  He took an active part in community life as a member of the Surbiton Hill Methodist Church, where he sang in the choir for over 40 years and helped re-form the tennis club.  He was also a member of the Surbiton Rotary Club for 22 years from 1939.

Bestall studied drawing at the Birmingham Central School of Art and Crafts from 1911 to 1914 before transferring his studies to London.  He was a driver and mechanic on the Western Front from 1916 and began contributing humorous illustrations to “Blighty” magazine.  After being demobbed in 1919, Bestall worked full-time as an illustrator, and in 1922 he received the first of over a hundred commissions for “Punch” magazine.  He also illustrated a number of children’s books, including Enid Blyton’s “The Play’s the Thing” (1927) and Dudley Glass’s “The Spanish Goldfish” (1934).

In 1935, Bestall took over from Mary Tourtel (1874-1948) as writer and artist of the Rupert Bear strip published in the “Daily Express”.  Tourtel had originally created her “The Adventures of the Little Bear Lost” in November 1920, establishing his appearance as a small brown bear dressed in checked trousers and matching scarf.  Bestall continued this visual trend, though in different colours, over the 30 years that he produced the strip, and developed the scope of Rupert’s adventures in Nutwood.

Rupert Bear had a tremendous following from the start, with thousands of children worldwide joining the “Rupert League”, established in 1932.  The strip was read daily, even throughout the Second World War, and Bestall aimed to keep morale high through the content of his stories.  In 1936, Bestall created the popular genre of Annuals, and a quarterly “Adventure Series” followed in 1949.  Bestall produced the daily strip until his retirement in 1965 after which he continued to contribute to the Rupert Annuals until he was 90.  His endpaper for the 1958 Rupert Bear annual – “Frog Chorus” – was immortalised by Sir Paul McCartney in “Rupert and the Frog Song” in 1984.

Awarded an MBE in 1985, Alfred Bestall was equally proud of his work for “Punch”, the double-page watercolour spreads he produced for Tatler magazine, and his two oil paintings which were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London.  Although a shy man, he had a great sympathy and affection for children, and was intensely conscious of his ability to influence the minds of his young readers.   

Rupert Bear’s place is firmly established in twentieth-century iconography and he remains a favourite children’s character for whom Alfred Bestall will be fondly remembered.