Edmund Blampied - Art School

Art School

In January 1903, aged 16 years old and barely able to speak English, Blampied left Jersey to study at the Lambeth School of Art, formerly the South London School of Technical Art and now called the City and Guilds of London Art School, where he was taught by Philip Connard R.A. and Thomas McKeggie. After taking a test and submitting some drawings, in May 1904 Blampied won a £20 London County Council (LCC) Scholarship for two years to continue his studies at any LCC art school. Later that year he was selected by the head of the Art School to work part time on the staff of a national newspaper, The Daily Chronicle, which enabled him to earn some extra money. His first published illustrations appeared in The Daily Chronicle on 13 January 1905.

In September 1905 Blampied transferred from the Lambeth School of Art to the LCC School of Photo-engraving and Lithography at Bolt Court for the final year of his scholarship. There he became friends with the artists and illustrators Salomon van Abbe, John Nicolson and Robert Charles Peter. It is believed that, after finishing full time studies at Bolt Court in the summer of 1906, he continued to work at The Daily Chronicle and then perhaps at other newspapers while studying in the evenings at Bolt Court, though very little is known about this period in his life.