BEGINNINGS
as it may, the latter-day Rackhams were cockneys, and Arthur Rackham was proudly conscious of the fact.
Thomas Rackham, Arthur’s grandfather, was a schoolmaster, who first taught in the school of his uncle William Capel in Vauxhall Walk and who opened a private school of his own in Baalzephon Street, Bermondsey, in 1832. His only brother Joseph also kept private schools, first in Kennington and afterwards in Kensington. In 1824 Thomas married Jane Harris, herself the daughter of a teacher, James Harris, whose private school was in Prospect Row, Walworth. James Harris was an agreeable character, fond of children, a member of the Philosophical Society of London and author of a school book on Algebra. There was a measure of artistic talent in the Harris family. James’s brother Henry was a lithographer, and Henry’s son Augustus became a drawing master at Maidstone.
Alfred Thomas Rackham, the father of Arthur Rackham, was born on 11th July 1829, in the house in Baalzephon Street, Bermondsey, and was christened at old Bermondsey Church. It was then a relatively prosperous neighbourhood, for a number of wealthy men lived in Bermondsey at their business premises. At the age of seven or eight Alfred Thomas attended lectures given by Wallis the astronomer, Dr Birkbeck and others, at the Southwark Astronomical Society. He did not go to school, but was privately taught by one Mary Sutherland, whom he later described as ‘a very able woman’. Before he was fifteen, he was accepted as a junior clerk by a proctor in Doctors’ Commons at a salary of £20 a year. After two years he proceeded, this time as a full clerk, to Messrs Tebbs and Sons, also proctors in Doctors’ Commons, at £40 a year.
Doctors’ Commons, immortalized by Dickens in David Copperfield, was the name given to the area south of St Paul’s Churchyard, surrounding the College of Advocates in Great Knightrider Street. The College consisted of two small quadrangles wherein the Advocates (Doctors of Law) resided or had chambers. They alone had20
