Gould, Julian

Julian Gould was the son of Mahalah and Frederick James Gould (1855-1938), a teacher, author, socialist and founder of the Propagandist Press Committee which later became the Rationalist Press Association. He served as Secretary of the Leicester Secular Society from 1899-1908. Born in London, Julian was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School and studied art at the Municipal of School of Art in Leicester. Gould won the silver medal for a shaded drawing of a man's head from life - the drawing was exhibited in a collection of students' work in South Kensington. He shared his father's socialist sympathies.

Gould was working as a printer's designer, but after the sinking of the Lusitania he joined the 16th Middlesex Regiment in May 1915. His battalion left for France in November 1915. He fought at The Somme in 1916 and the following year was killed in action at Monchy le preux, near Arras, on 31 May. The principal of the Art School remembers him as "a student of keen artistic temperament and much promise" in a letter of 13 June 1917. After his death, his father published a Memorial Notice of Julian Gould which reproduced some of Gould's drawings. The book received favourable notices in both The Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Guide. His father's regret was that his son would never paint "the vision of Emancipated Labour".

2015-06-09

A. Wilson