![Winston L. S. Churchill (1874–1965), MP for Oldham (1900–1905)](https://d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net/w800h800/collection/GMI/OLD/GMI_OLD_7_02-001.jpg)
Winston L. S. Churchill (1874–1965), MP for Oldham (1900–1905) c.1900
George William Fish (1876–c.1930)
Gallery Oldham
This elusive artist was born at Tranmere, Birkenhead, as third son of Edward Duncombe Fish, a prominent Liverpool stockbroker, and his wife, Caroline: a daughter, Ann (b.1870/1871), was their eldest child. Unconfirmed report gives George’s birth date as 22nd February 1876 and he was baptised on 6th April at the Walker Street Methodist Chapel (now Tranmere Methodist Church). In 1881 and 1891 the census returns show the family at 18 North Road, Tranmere, but by 1893 they appear to have moved to no. 22. Unfortunately, a period of general financial downturn followed, with Edward Fish one of the casualties. On 31st December 1895 he was posted as a Stock Exchange defaulter and appears to have killed himself later that day, either by walking in front of a train in the Mersey Tunnel or jumping off one, though the inquest returned an open verdict. His remains were only found the following day.
In autumn of 1900 the young Winston Churchill was elected Conservative MP (one of two) for Oldham, after a failed attempt in 1899, and his vigorous campaigning included at Accrington, a seat for which he had also considered making his second attempt. Although the circumstances are unclear, the very effective Conservative agent at Oldham, Robert Frederic Ware (1861–1919), shortly thereafter commissioned Fish to paint a portrait of the new MP, perhaps originally for the local party offices. By 2nd October 1902, however, when Churchill opened a loan exhibition from the Russell Cotes collection at Bournemouth in Oldham Art Gallery, Ware had arranged for it to be hanging on loan near the Gallery entrance. He then seems to have seen the merits, political or otherwise, of making the loan a gift to the town: Oldham Corporation minutes of 10th December note its acceptance with a formal letter of thanks being sent to Ware on 6th January 1903.
Whether Fish painted the portrait from life (and if so where) or at least partly from photographs is unknown, though its appearance suggests ad vivum. The most intriguing detail is the carved chair in which Churchill is sitting, behind a desk and papers, since it was a family possession. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, sat in it for a portrait by Edwin Arthur Ward in 1886 and so did Winston around 1900; he was also photographed in it in a series made around 1902 and others of 1949. Its inclusion was therefore sitter’s choice, but whether seen by Fish in his London flat (Mount Street at the time), brought to Oldham, or copied from another image are also unknowns. Churchill nonetheless considered the portrait significant – which it also is as apparently the earliest of him as an MP – since in 1947 he asked to be sent photographs of it. There is no evidence of other connection between Fish and Ware but the former would certainly have been witness to Churchill’s local campaigning and it is self-evident that Ware knew of (or was recommended to) him as a young local artist meriting encouragement, as well as being relatively inexpensive.
Little else is subsequently known of him. By the time of the 1911 census, the Fish family had returned to the Wirral in Cheshire, living at Hoylake. No profession is given for George on the return, where his name is entered but also crossed out, presumably since unexpectedly absent on census night. Neither does he appear elsewhere, then or later, in person or through further known painting. The only possible trace so far is of a George Fish who died at the Barrowmore Hall Sanatorium, Great Barrow (near Chester) on 21st March 1930, at the reported age of 55: that would fit, since ages are often approximate in such cases, but no other details are given.
Summarised from Art UK’s ‘Art Detective’ discussion ‘Does anyone have any information about the artist, G. W. Fish?’
Text source: Art Detective