William D (Skipper) Anderson

[mick]

William D Anderson died in London in 1916 and according to a newspaper cut out of that time which unfortunately does not give the name of the newspaper, he was a Crimea veteran who was a favourite model for artists and much seen in adverts and posters. Family legend has it that his face was used for adverts for Skippers sardines.
For someone who was so well known in late victorian and edwardian times, i am having great difficulty in finding out where he fits into the family.
I would be grateful if anyone could let me know where i could start looking for Crimean war records. Also if the name Skipper Anderson rings a bell with anyone any information will be very helpful.
Mick

[Chrissyan]

Not answering your question about the Crimean war but I just wondered, have you seen this? https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1...4VMs08hk&hl=en

[Peter Goodey]

Family legends are usually best put on the back burner. Conventional family history research will uncover the connection - if there is one!

On the other hand if you wanted to work on William Anderson's line, to find out whether it intersects yours, you have a year of death as a starting point.

[mick]

Thanks for the link - this should help me progress a little further.
Next step is to order the death cert to see if that throws anything up.
Mick

[Michelle Davis]

Hi, I was just browsing and came across your comments. I have been researching my history and had been talking to an Aunt and she told me that the man on the Skippers Sardines tins was my Grandfather 2 times removed. He was a man called William Bibby who was known around the area of Birkdale as Old man Bibby and was asked to sit for many an artist, I have a photo of him as he appeared on the tin. He was a lifeboat man in the area and should of gone out on the night of a storm when all hands but 2 where lost at sea. This was recently covered on the BBC series Coast.

[Mutley]

I believe the artist for Skippers was John Gilroy, later to work on the Guinness adverts. I don't know if there is a biography for him that may have his subject's name included. He was working for S.H. Benson advertising agency.

[mick]

I have been in contact with the Norwegian canning museum in Stavanger and they were kind enough to send me documents that show Skipper Anderson was in fact William Duncan Anderson. He was an old naval reserve man who was born in Oxford in the late 1830's. He joined the navy at a young age and travelled as far as the far east. On retirement he worked as a photographers and artists model and sat as a model for Sir William Reid Dick and Sir Luke Fildes among others. One of his photos was seen in a photograhers window in Oxford Street, puchased for two guineas along with the copyright for a further five guineas, and subsequently used as the trademark for Skippers sardines.
He lived in London after retirement and much of his spare time was given to the care of young strays in the East End.
Mick

[Chrissyan]

That is very interesting Mick, I am so pleased that the canning museum got back to you. Your relative turns up every where. I got interested because he turned up on a collage style photo of fishermen of my town. Someone pointed out on our town forum they had seen his photo before & he didn't seem to fit in with the rest of them, so I started to do internet research & found him & your post in the process so decided to tell you. Someone later posted this which they photographed in the Whitby lifeboat house ecently,it was accompanying his photo, they knew in Whitby who he was all along.




Good luck with your research.

[mick]

Thanks for the link. I have a very old painting/print of him still in its original frame dating back to around 1900 which has been handed down over the years. I must admit he does bear a very strong resemblance to ancestors on the Anderson side of the family but still haven't gone back far enough to establish a definite link.

[Michelle Davis]

Hi Mick,

Well it just goes to show that you shouldn't believe all that you are told by aged relatives Lol, i wonder how that story got around but never mind.