Henry Mayo Bateman was a prodigious cartoonist best known for The Man Who… series of social satires. Bateman is commemorated by a blue plaque at 40 Nightingale Lane, Clapham, his home in a neighbourhood from which he drew inspiration for collections such as Suburbia (1922).

Bateman was born on 15 February 1887 in Moss Vale, New South Wales, Australia. His parents returned to England the following year. Bateman enjoyed drawing from an early age and was encouraged by his mother. He had a postcard image published when he was 14 and studied drawing and painting at the Westminster School of Art aged 16 before attending Goldsmiths’ College at New Cross. He then studied in the London studio of the Belgian painter Charles Van Havermaet.

A long association with The Tatler magazine began in 1904, though initially Bateman found it difficult to choose between fine art and cartoons. A few years later, he had decided to follow his childhood ambition to make people laugh, though he himself experienced periods of mental ill health.

Satirising Suburbia in Clapham

Bateman described how he ‘went mad on paper’ by drawing people ‘as they felt’ rather than appeared. He was most famous for his images of suburbia, drawing inspiration from his home, Parkstone, 40 Nightingale Lane, Clapham.

His pre-First World War cartoons depicted nuances of gentility for publications including The Sketch and The Bystander. Prominent arts figures featured among his caricatures, as well as invented personalities.

In The Man Who… series, Bateman depicted a central figure committing a social gaffe or transgression and the exaggeratedly appalled reaction of those around them. This originated in 1912 with ‘The Missed Putt’ and continued with works like ‘The Man who Lit his Cigar before the Royal Toast’.

At this point – from about 1910 to 1914 – Bateman was living at 40 Nightingale Lane, an imposing three-storey house of the 1880s notable for its decorative polychromatic brick frontage. It was while living in Nightingale Lane that he had his first one man show, in 1911 at the Brook Street Gallery. Previously he had lived at another address in Clapham.

Although he volunteered for military service, Bateman was rejected for health reasons. A period of depression followed, though his cartoons demonstrated a livelier humour than before and began to be published in Punch from 1915, following iconic illustrators such as John Tenniel. Cartoons without words such as ‘The Boy who Breathed on the Glass in the British Museum’ are considered classics, and both his output and earnings were substantial.

Professional Success, Personal Challenges

After the war, Bateman moved to Reigate in Surrey. He married Brenda Mary Collison Weir in 1926, and they had two daughters, though their different personalities soon led to a strained relationship.

The Man Who… series appeared as colour double-page spreads in The Tatler from 1922, and were in much demand from advertisers to promote their products. They were satires of the snobberies and absurdities of the time, but – thanks to what one biographer calls ‘the ubiquity of embarrassment’ – have a timeless appeal.

Bateman had collected editions of his work published, illustrated several books and produced The Art of Drawing (1926), which is still referred to as a guide to foundational skills. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he largely retired, though he did produce memorable images for propaganda posters such as ‘Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases’ for the Ministry of Health.

After the war he separated from his family and moved to Devon, where he enjoyed fly fishing but became obsessional about the Inland Revenue. In the late 1960s he moved to Gozo, a Maltese island, where he painted watercolour landscapes. He died there in February 1970.

Further Reading

• John Jensen, ‘Bateman, Henry Mayo (1887–1970)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) (access with a UK public library card)