Over the last 5 years, volunteers and staff at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon have been cataloguing the Vernon Carr Boyle Collection, which includes over 5000 watercolours, sketches, pen and ink drawings, illustrations, poems and reference material. In 2020, the Museum Development Trust were offered the archive, which was gifted to the Museum by Richard Boyle, who sadly passed away in 2022. The current exhibition highlights the breadth of the collection and some of the wonderful treasures uncovered so far.
Vernon C. Boyle was born in Bideford in 1886. He was well known throughout the town as he was the grandson of George Boyle, a clothier and draper who had a large and popular shop on the High Street. He taught at Bideford Grammar School between 1905 and 1912, leaving at the age of 26 to study science at University College London. Here he met his wife Winifred Sweet, a fellow teacher.
In 1914 Vernon re-enlisted into the 6th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiments, and after marrying Winifred in Bideford, he sailed on the 9th October 2014 for India to join his Battalion. A large proportion of the archive is a pictorial record of his time away from home serving in India and Mesopotamia during the First World War – and provides a wonderful record of a people, time and place long forgotten.
Vernon C. Boyle was a very active and busy man, who liked walking, athletics and ships. He had his first painting lesson with Mrs Jordon the 1st September 1906 and went on to study at Bideford Art School, excelling in drawing and perspective.
