Above: Bobby Jones is presented with the Claret Jug - Champion Golfer 1930


Left: Royal Lytham’s portrait of Bobby Jones by Berrie


J.A.A. Berrie was one of the foremost portrait artists of his day


to see our portrait of Jones by Berrie, which hangs above the staircase of our clubhouse.


He immediately remarked that there


was a portrait of J.R. Dixon himself, very similar in style and size, which hangs in the house of Charles’s late brother. He has since verified that the signature on this portrait is that of J.A.A. Berrie, so it seems that J.R. Dixon commissioned Berrie to paint the Hoylake portrait of Jones, and the portrait for Royal Lytham, and also one of himself for good measure. The golfing world can be grateful that


he had a greater interest in portraiture than he did in music. The first portrait of Bobby Jones by


Berrie was commissioned by Sir Ernest Royden, an ex-Captain of Wallasey, when Jones played there whilst qualifying for the 1930 Hoylake Open. It is of head and shoulders, and is the only one of the Berrie portraits of Jones which is signed by Jones himself and it hangs today in the Wallasey clubhouse. In Steven Reid’s excellent book, Bobby’s Open, he quotes a letter from


Jones to Royden in which he wrote: “Mr Berrie kept me occupied for not more than thirty minutes and during that time pleasantly refreshed me with a whisky and soda. As an object lesson in portraiture, this was the best I have ever seen.” Jones also wrote in the same letter: “I have a copy of the Wallasey portrait in my home, where it always attracts attention and admiration.” I assume that this was the only sitting


which Jones did for Berrie, and that the Hoylake


and Lytham paintings were


created by Berrie from sketches made at that sitting. Some members who have seen all three portraits say they think ours is the best, but that may be a biased view! J.A.A. Berrie was born in 1887 and died in 1962, and was one of the foremost portrait artists of his day; his subjects included George V, Edward VIII, Queen Mary, George VI, Winston Churchill, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Incidentally, I was amused to see in


Steven Reid’s book a reference to the slow play of Walter Hagen in the 1926 Open at Lytham, which was criticised by


“Hello, Malcolm.


How is your band?”


Above: The Berrie portrait of J R Dixon


Below: Berrie’s signature


Bernard Darwin and other journalists and fellow players. One remarked of Hagen that, “He was so meticulous in his play that he took three hours to complete the round.” This was viewed as scandalously slow. How times have changed. n


ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB 2018–2019 MAGAZINE 27


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