Ellen 'Nelly' Buchanan Biography

Ellen 'Nelly or Nellie' Buchanan (1865-1950) was born on 2nd September 1865 in London to Thomas Clark Buchanan (1835-1868), a Scottish-born railway worker, and Lucinda 'Lucy' Catherine Kelly (1831-1898), an Irish-born artist and wood-engraver.

Thomas Buchanan died in 1868 at the age of just 33, leaving Lucy Buchanan to support her family, which she did through selling her artwork and engravings. She employed an assistant, Emily Lamb, to help in the practice. 

Nelly, together with her sisters, Lucy Martha (b.1859) and Elizabeth H. (b.1860), also became artists and wood-engravers after studying art.

Nelly married Arthur Shephard (1862-1931) on 15th July 1895 at Christ Church, Holborn, London, and by 1901 they were living in St Ives, Cornwall, where the census shows Nellie as an artist/painter and Arthur with no occupation. The couple had three children - Athol (b.1897), Hilda (1904) and Cameron (b.1905). By 1911, they were living back in London with Arthur working as a stockbroker's clerk. By 1939, Nellie is widowed and still working as an artist, living with her son Cameron, who is now an architect.

Nelly illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1909 and also contributed many illustrations to Blackie's for their yearly children's annual. She signed her work N. Buchanan.

Nellie died in May 1950 at the age of 84 in Lewisham and is buried in Grove Park Cemetery, London.