ROE, Fred

1864 - 1947

As Alfred Frederic Roe, he was born at 14 King's Road, Cambridge on 8 May 1864, youngest son of Robert Roe (c1792-31 July 1880), a print-seller, and his wife (Eliza) Maria Plees (18 May 1828-17 December 1901), daughter of Revd William George Plees, vicar of Ashbocking, Suffolk, who married at St Matthew's Church, Ipswich on 1 September 1859, when Robert with his wife returned to live at Cambridge, Maria's sister Jeanetta married Owen Roe. The family were living at Cambridge where his father Robert died in 1880, aged 88. Fred, as he was known, studied under John Seymour Lucas and in 1881, a 16-year-old artist student, living with his 51-year-old widowed mother Maria, a print-seller & gilder, at 14 King's Parade, Cambridge also with Fred were his two artist brothers, 20 year old Robert Gordon and 19 year old Charles Edward Roe, who were also born at Cambridge. Fred married at St Mary's Church, Putney, London on 21 May 1890, Letitia Mabel Lee (15 August 1869-11 December 1940), eldest daughter of Sydney W. Lee of Putney Hill. In 1891, an artist in oils, living at 21 Victoria Grove, Chelsea and seems to have come to Ipswich shortly afterwards, where his widowed mother was living at 'Morecambe' 55 Henley Road, Ipswich with his brother Charles, by now a theological student, his other brother Robert had also left the art scene and was a minister at St Mary's church, Badwell Ash, Suffolk. Fred had returned to London by 1901, living at 104 Priory Road, Hampstead and between 1900 and 1945, assembled two albums of ‘Character Sketches’ containing portraits of Roe’s friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Many of these are drawn in pencil on menu cards and table plans and other ephemera. A genre and historical painter and watercolourist and exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition from 1887 and continued to show there until a few years before his death. He also showed at other principal London and provincial centres, as well as at the Paris Salon; the Rome International (1911); Toronto and other overseas galleries. A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1890-1891 and exhibited from 18 Bolton Studio, Redcliffe Road, London SW in 1890/1 'Mabel, the daughter of Sydney Lee, Esq.' and in 1890 from 21 Victoria Grove, Brompton, London 'Forty Winks' and 'The Old Sun Inn, St Stephen's Ipswich'. In 1923 he exhibited 'Dedication of the War Memorial Window, St Mildred's Church City' and a pen & colour drawing 'Leaving the Mill, East Anglia' and in 1932 from 18 Stanford Road, Kensington Court, London, an oil 'Gossip Lane' and at the Ipswich Art Club's centenary exhibition in 1974 his oil 'The 4th Suffolk's at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle' was on display. In 1939, Roe was living at 24 Addison Road, Kensington, London with his wife, who died the following year, and son Frederick Gordon Roe, author, & art critic. Alfred Frederic Roe died at Kingston Lodge, 24 Addison Road, Kensington on 16 August 1947. His portrait was painted by his brother Charles Edward Roe in 1879 and is at Buckinghamshire County Museum. He signed his works 'Fred Roe'.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 7 Park Road Studios, Haverstock Hill, London
1887 638 Fugitives
         848 'Who's there?'
1888 1039 Mr Chester at the Maypole Inn
from 18 Bolton Studios, Redcliffe Road, SW London
1889 1173 Mabel, daughter of S. W. Lee, Esq.
from 21 Victoria Grove, Chelsea, SW London
1890 637 Plunder
1891 455 Consulting the Witch
1893 922 Trial of Joan of Arc
1895 345 The Traitor's Wife
         391 Mrs Arthur Bridge
         491 Nelson leaving Portsmouth for the Victory 1795
from 104 Priory Road, West Hampstead
1898 93 'Two heads are better than one'
         924 The love-letters
1900 23 Checkmate
         1010 Old Defenders...H M Yeoman Warders
1901 713 A health to the old love
1902 164 Philip IV visiting Valesquez in his studio
         464 Beating the Bounds: Tower of London
from 18 Stanford Road, Kensington Court
1905 137 Sunny Boulogne
         324 Lady Hamilton's last sitting to George Romney
1906 613 The Abbé's Salad
         804 Martyrdom
1907 812 A Ring of Harmony
1908 867 The Night before Trafalgar
         1068 Belle of the Fifties
1909 18 The Return of the Heroes
1910 403 Aristocrats 1790
         675 Mrs Francis Farnan
1911 222 A City Banquet: Mr Justice Eady replies...
         408 Revolution
1912 302 The Barricade: 1830
         389 Urgent Despatches 1812
1913 123 Love's Garden
         189 For those at Sea
1914 512 Lord Nelson handing the Loving Cup to Benjamin West
1915 75 The Foster-parent
         490 Somewhere at the Front
1916 561 The Fortune of War
         593 Before the Dawn
1917 687 'When the boys come marching home'
         694 The Piping times of Peace
1918 327 Afternoon prayers at Westminster School
         354 A Boy Scout's last honours
1919 184 The Ever-open Door
         323 The Returning Victors
         374 4th Battalion Suffolk Regiment at Neuve Chapelle
1920 205 A Relieved Platoon of the 1/5 Gloucesters
         566 Recruiting in the Guildhall, by Sir Charles Wakefield, Bt.
1922 319 Blessing the Waters
         344 The Coffee Stall
1924 355 Close Action
         838 Cleaning up the 'Victory'
1925 267 Scoutmaster's Supper
         571 Beatrice and the Classic Vase
1926 272 The passing of John Sargent
1927 417 Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace
1928 410 The Red Cross
1929 288 'S.O.S.'
         319 The King's Colour Passes: Scots Guards
         1029 A Fifteenth Century Merchant's Mansion - pencil
1930 297 The News
1932 1044 Salisbury Cross - pencil
1933 335 Quality Street
1934 338 The Cardinal's Kitchen, Christ Church, Oxford
         478 The Fireside
from 24 Addison Road, Kensington
1936 485 Salts Ashore
1937 311 Peddler's Pitch
1938 321 The Tuck Shop
1939 550 Street of many Bargains
1943 651 Derelict Tidal Mill, Essex

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Works by This Artist