Sir Arthur Herbert Church: scientist, artist, author and collector

A check at the nearby National Archives at Kew showed us that the site of what is now Voltaire flats was previously occupied by a large plot (around twice the size of neighbouring properties) on which stood a detached house and also an outhouse. Three original decorative stone gateposts are still standing, next to the driveway and at the far end of the front gardens. (See picture below).

Sir Arthur and ‘Shelsley’

Sir Arthur Herbert Church

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The house, called Shelsley was built for Arthur Herbert Church, later Sir Arthur, KCVO* FRS**, chemist, mineralogist, artist, polymath and author. Sir Arthur was born in 1834, the youngest son of John Thomas Church, a solicitor of Bedford Row in London. He was educated at King’s College and the Royal College of Chemistry and on graduating from Lincoln College, Oxford, where he gained a First Class degree at the Natural Science School, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Cirencester Royal Agricultural College. In 1879 he became the first Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Academy of Arts.

In 1879, aged 44, her married Jemima Pope, the daughter of John Buckingham Pope, a colliery proprietor, in Leeds, Yorkshire. It was around this time that Shelsley was built.

The academic and author

Sir Arthur became a leading authority in the chemistry of painting and, when the recently installed Maclise frescoes at the Palace of Westminster showed signs of damage, he identified the cause (airborne sulphuric acid from smoke) and advised on their restoration. In 1869 he discovered turacin, a naturally occurring red pigment containing copper and several mineral types including the only British cerium mineral, a Cornish mineral which bears his name Churchite.

A prolific author, he published many books including a ‘Laboratory Guide for Agricultural Students’ which ran into eight editions and ‘Colour: an elementary manual for students’. He also published the results of his research on subjects as diverse as the food grains of India, English porcelain pigments and Cornish minerals. The Royal Society Catalogue quotes 137 titles up to the year 1900. He was elected Fellow the Chemical Society in 1856 and of the Royal Society in 1888 and was created KCVO* in 1909.

Curiously, Sir Arthur’s discovery of Turacin has links not only to Kew Gardens but proved significant in later, 20^th century medical research. Turacin is a naturally occurring red pigment that is 6% copper and a natural source of porphyrin, a discovery made by Sir Arthur in 1869. It is found only in the bird family Musophagidae, or Turacos, natives of South Africa. Unfortunately the entire plumage of one bird only yields a few grains of pigment. However, 20^th century research into Church’s findings led to a greater understanding of porphyrins and the postulation that King George III’s erratic behaviour was due to the condition variegate porphuyria, a concept employed in Alan Bennet’s 1991 play ‘The Madness of George III. During his bouts of ‘madness’, King George was kept at Kew Palace.

The artist

But it would be wrong to think of Sir Arthur purely as an academic. He was a talented landscape painter who exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1854. 1866, 1867 and 1870 and struck up friendships with many artists of the day including George Frederick Watts and Frederic, Lord Leighton, to whom he dedicated his painting manual and was a frequent correspondent. William Morris consulted him about a problem with ink which occurred when printing his epic Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Burne-Jones interviewed Church about this. In return, Morris designed some stained glass for the chapel at the Royal Agricultural College. This was to be Church’s gift to the College where he was Professor for sixteen years and can be seen today in the Signs of the Zodiac tracery of the chapel’s east window.

Church died in 1915 and his grave is in Richmond Cemetery, Section H, grave number 3568.

As for the house, Sir Arthur and his wife Jemima stayed for a couple of years in Royston House (which stands where Royston Court now is on Lichfield Road) while Shelsley was being built, around 1879. It seems likely that the house was built by a builder called James Moore Lucas, who was the lead builder of the Selwyn estate on which it stood as he built all the other houses in Ennerdale Road, down to no 59, as well as many in The Avenue. Marrying in their 40s it appears the Churches had no children. Is this the reason why it was demolished in the late 1950s or early 1960s and the plot sold to make way for the building of Voltaire? More research may reveal the answer.

*Knight Cross of Victorian Order, a distinguished form of knighthood bestowed by a sovereign. **Fellow of the Royal Society.

Sir Arthur’s legacy and the Church Collection in Kew Archives

As well as leaving a prolific volume of research, Sir Arthur had collected botanical drawings and paintings. On his death his wife, Lady Church, left a collection of 67 of these to Kew Gardens, of which 46 were initially displayed in the Marianne North Gallery under Sir Arthur’s name. Now known as the Sir Arthur Herbert Church Collection, these are still held with Kew’s Library and Archives and the collection contains work by some of the key botanical artists from the Golden Age of botanical illustration such as Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770). Illustrations from the Collection have been exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens along with loans to domestic and international museums.

Gentiana acaulis

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Watercolour on paper By Simon Pietersz Verelst (1644-1721)