Cecil Mendelssohn Round (1865-1933) was born at Tipton on 28th January 1865. At the time, this was in the District of Dudley within the county of Staffordshire. His parents were Edward and Frances Round and he was born the third of four children.
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Edward ROUND (b.1837) m. Frances BEACH (b.1833) |
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| 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. |
| Percy Zillwood ROUND
(b.1861) |
Frances Amy ROUND
(b.1862) |
Cecil Mendelssohn ROUND
(b.1865) |
Raymond Lionel ROUND
(b.1873) |
By occupation his father was a brewer and maltster (employing five men). In 1865, Edward Round was manager of The Red Lion public house (adjoining The Lion Brewery) at 140 Park Lane West, Lower Green in Tipton, which was owned by his father, Thomas Round. It was here that Cecil Round was born. The brewery held a seven-day licence but Edward Round was a very religious man and refused to open on Sundays. He was organist at the nearby Wesleyan Chapel.
Census records show that the family were still living in Tipton in 1871 and indeed, Cecil Round’s younger brother Raymond, was also born there in 1873. Secondary sources (see Hitchmough’s Black Country Pubs – www.longpull.co.uk) also imply that Thomas Round was the licensee at the Red Lion from 1849 to 1872. He may have been succeeded by Edward as licensee, through to early 1880 when the Red Lion was sold (see Black Country History – Ref. D-NAJ/C/11/5), although sadly, the records do not appear to be complete for this period.
[NOTE: The building is still standing today and continues to trade as a pub. However, the building is now 172 Park Lane West, having since been renumbered. Today, it carries a Tipton Civic Society Blue Plaque (in association with Bass Mitchells and Butlers) claiming the Red Lion to be “Tipton’s oldest pub. Dating from the late 18th century and, together with the adjacent house, the last remnant of the old village of Tipton Green.” View the location here.]
However, by the 1881 census, the family had moved to 30 South Street, Greenwich, London. Cecil Round was aged sixteen at the time (his father was now described as a brewery valuer) and, on the day of the census, he was staying at the home of John and Elizabeth Grove Johnson and their children (including their son Raymond, who was also aged sixteen), at Southwood Court, Highgate in Middlesex. By all accounts the Johnson family were very wealthy. John was an assayer and his wife Elizabeth (neé Barnicott) was first cousin to Cecil Round’s mother, Frances (neé Beach).
Whilst Cecil was visiting his cousins in Highgate, it seems his elder sister (also Frances, aged twenty) was entertaining with their parents at the family home in Greenwich, another of their cousins, Mary Beach (aged nineteen). Mary was the daughter of chemist James Beach, who lived at Bridport in Dorset.
From a very early age, Cecil Round showed talent as an artist, a profession he maintained throughout his lifetime. His earliest known paintings (see our Online Gallery) date from 1881 when he was just sixteen years old. It is interesting that several of these paintings featured Devon landscapes, although it is unclear how he first came to visit the county. Given his age, it was presumably on a family holiday but this is purely conjecture.
Even at that young age, Cecil Round showed great versatility in his subject matter and, although he is today remembered most for his reproduction of landscapes, he was also a figure painter and produced some wonderful portraiture.
During his lifetime Cecil Round exhibited his work at a number of provincial galleries, including but not exclusively, venues in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. Although not actually a Royal Academician, he also exhibited eight paintings at the Royal Academy; these appeared across six Summer Exhibitions between 1885 and 1898.
Sadly, in December 1887, Cecil Round’s father passed away. It is unclear whether or not the family had moved from South Street in Greenwich but, Edward Round actually died at 17 Bennett Park, Blackheath, Greenwich.
We next pick up Cecil Round in official records as part of the 1891 census. By now, aged twenty-six, he was established as a landscape and portrait painter. He was lodging with a Mrs Page at her home (next door to the school) in Stone Street, Ockley, Abinger in Surrey.
Ten years later, in 1901, he was lodging with a harness-maker and his wife, at Lower Eype (within the parish of Symondsbury), Bridport in Dorset. He was actually living next door to where his mother had been born and where several Beach relatives still lived. His mother and unmarried sister were also living together nearby, at 48 Bradpole Road in Bridport. As such, he was living close to extended family.
By the time of the 1911 census, Cecil Round had moved away from Bridport and was lodging with a Mrs Fisk, at 4 Greenbank Terrace, St Marychurch in Torquay, Devon. Sadly, his mother passed away in February of this year. She had remained in Bridport where she died at 61 Victoria Grove.
Census records are not yet in the public domain for 1921 and 1931. However, we can assume that Cecil Round continued to live in Devon for at least part of this period. He passed away on 20th June, 1933 at the residence of Mr P Bartle, at 62 East Street, Holborough in Newton Abbot. He was sixty-eight years old and had been living at 38 Abbey Road in Torquay. He remained a bachelor throughout his lifetime and the cause of death was recorded as “Morbus Cordis (valvular)” which is a form of heart disease.
It is unclear how many paintings Cecil Round produced during his lifetime but we currently have over 65 images in our Online Gallery and over 100 paintings referenced on our database; so he was certainly a prolific artist and, his paintings continue to give great pleasure today.