Stuart Boyle was an artist/illustrator. He worked freelance for newspapers, magazines and did book jackets and posters before working in advertising and then as a medical illustrator. However, he considered himself primarily an artist/painter.

1907
Born December 5, Cape Town, South Africa. Attended Cape Town Art School. Apprenticeship with a South African newspaper. He worked briefly as a political cartoonist on the Cape Times.

1932
Left South Africa for UK.

1933
Set designer for The Gaumont British Picture Corporation Limited, work on I Was a Spy and Britannia of Billingsgate.

1935
Married Vera White on 26 June. 

1936
Stuart illustrated and Vera composed They Followed the Leader, Lawrence & Wishart, a book without words.

1938
Political cartoons in The Daily Herald, The News Chronicle and The Daily Express. Stuart illustrated and Vera wrote The Rise and Fall of Mr Prophitt, Chapman & Hall, foreword by Evelyn Waugh:

"No book could need a preface less than The Rise and Fall of Mr Prophitt. Clarity and self-sufficiency are the most notable characteristics of Mr. Boyle’s art; his drawings are not illustrations to a story; they are the story itself, and those who make business of story-telling can only applaud and envy them. We work with words, tools that are blunted and bent by daily misuse; words that are anybody’s and everybody’s, common stuff, vague, cumbrous, capable of half meanings and double meanings and of no meanings at all; mere clucking and respirations employed to fill the gaps of thought. Mr. Boyle speaks clear and strong in a tongue that is entirely his own. His story is an exquisite achievement of satire and fancy. To restate in literary terms what he says with such elegance, economy and precision would be impertinent. The object of this foreword is neither to explain nor to introduce, but to claim precedence with the homage which, I am confident, he will soon abundantly receive."

1939 - 1945
Stuart and Vera go to New York City to look for work but return to London on declaration of war. Stuart initially served in the ARP (Air Raid Protection Service) located in the basement of The Freemason’s Arms, Downshire Hill London NW3 with the artist Roland Penrose and photographer Reg Pitt. His military service was with The Pioneer Corps through the Normandy campaign from Caen to Nuremburg. 

He spent time in Antwerp. During his time as a soldier, Stuart painted sets of wooden bricks, which he sent home for his young family. He made these flat bricks using the wood from the ammunition boxes. He illustrated the alphabetical set with letters on one side and paintings on the reverse.  He also made a numerical set of smaller bricks with patterns on the reverse side. In the following years he did many paintings and drawings of his military service. He communicated with Catholic writer Julien Graeque and witnessed war crime trials.

1940
Lived at 24 Willoughby Road, Hampstead, London NW3. A son, Philip was born. He became interested in the works of writer Georges Bernanos and painter Georges Rouault.

 1943
A daughter, Catherine was born.

1947
A daughter, Joy was born.

1945 – 1960
Freelance work included illustrations for  The Tatler and a series, Famous London Clubs for The Illustrated London News, Radio Times, Everybody Magazine, Sunday Times, Daily Express, News Chronicle, The Financial Times and an  annual The Saturday Book. He did book dust jackets including Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West , Grey Wall Press, 1949. One of Stuart’s daughters has a memory of Vera telling her Stuart got sacked from a newspaper for doing a cartoon of a policeman hitting a demonstrator.

1948
Stuart illustrates The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh, Chapman & Hall and The Revolt of the Tartars, Thomas de Quincey, Dropmore Press.

1950
A daughter, Tessa was born.

1950 – 1964
The family lived at 26 Perrin’s Lane, Hampstead, London NW3 1QY.

1951
The family became Roman Catholics. Stuart was interested in the French Catholic missionary, Charles de Foucault and in 1960s, the Catholic Worker movement.

1958
A daughter, Mary was born.

1960
Series of educational posters for Macmillan examples of which are now in the Museum of Childhood, a branch of the V&A.

1963
Vera and Stuart accommodated Dorothy Day, the American Catholic anarchist, on her visit to the UK. She ran a homeless hostel in New York City and edited The Catholic Worker.

1960 – 1965
Worked for advertising agency J Walter Thompson in Mayfair and then Hobsons. Colleagues included the poet, A J Tessimond and Rolling Stone drummer, Charlie Watts.

1964
Moved to 10 Royal Pier Road, Gravesend, Kent.

1967
Worked as a medical illustrator at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. While living in Gravesend, Stations of the Cross were commissioned for local RC Church.

1968
Stuart and Vera leave the Catholic Church and attend Quaker Meetings. A picture by Stuart of Quakers is still hanging in Rochester Quaker Meeting House. 

1969
Painting included in Royal Academy Summer Exhibition entitled The Camels and the Needle’s Eye.

1971
Moved to 7 Brett House Close, West Hill, Putney.

1972
Stuart’s health was failing and he, Vera and daughter Mary moved to Combs, Suffolk.

1973
Stuart died on 24 June and is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s, Combs, Suffolk.