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".
Published
RC0467
The fonds consists of 24 letters from Gould to his parents, 1915-1917, fifteen pencil sketches of scenes behind the British lines and a self-portrait, drawings and watercolours of landscapes (including juvenilia), Parisian architecture (1910), and nature studies, b&w photographs, news clippings, maps, letters of condolence, letters about the book Memorial and a letter concerning the Arras memorial in 1932, mostly bound in an album. There are annotations throughout by Frederick J. Gould. There are also a memorial card and letter of condolence with regard to Gould's sister who died at age six in 1893 and a photograph of St. George's Chapel Choir, Windsor, in 1865 (Frederick J. Gould was a member). A photocopy of a Memorial Notice of Julian Gould was acquired in November 2007.
Fonds was purchased at Christie's on 28 March 1984, lot 78, through Bertram Rota.
Further accruals are not expected.
A <a href="http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A5721">poster from 23 October 1915</a> has been digitized and is available on McMaster's <a href="http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/">Digital Archive</a>.
There are no access restrictions.