Dudley Tennant

Charles Dudley Tennant (1867-1952), known professionally as Dudley Tennant, was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, the son of Alfred Tennant, a solicitor, and Sarah Frances (nee Cardwell). He was christened in Northwood, Staffordshire, on 10 January 1867. His father died in 1880 and he was later raised in Everton, Lancashire, by his widowed mother, with whom he was still living in the early 1890s, already working as an artist and landscape painter. Later in that decade, he moved to London. 

Tennant became a regular illustrator for magazines, including The Girls’ Friend, The Girls’ Realm, The Graphic, The Idler, Penny Pictorial Magazine, The Royal Magazine and The Windsor Magazine. He was also a book illustrator in colour, halftone and black and white.

On 19 July 1899, he married Sarah Louisa Copnall in Egremont, Cheshire, and moved from 30 Gloucester Road , Regents Park, to Aberdeen Villas, Chase Road, Southgate some time in 1900-03. He later moved to Surrey where he died in 1952, aged 86.

Charles Dudley Tennant should not be confused with his son, Dudley Trevor Tennant (1900-1980), known professionally as Trevor Tennant, who was a sculptor. Magazine illustrations we have found from 1911/12 bear the same 'Dudley Tennant' signature as the later works we have shown here, when Dudley Trevor Tennant would have been a child.