Author: Bunbury, Henry William
Biography:
BUNBURY, Henry William (1750-1811: ODNB)
Pseudonyms: Geoffrey Gambado, Professor Lumpwitz
Primarily an artist and caricaturist, he was the author of three books—including the one listed in this database—and he contributed a ballad, “The Little Grey Men,” to M. G. Lewis’s (q.v.) Tales of Wonder. He was the second son of the Rev. Sir William Bunbury (d 1764), vicar of Mildenhall in Suffolk, and his wife Eleanor Graham (d 1762). He was born on 1 July 1750 at the Manor House, Mildenhall, and baptised on 25 July. Like his father and elder brother—and, later, his two sons—he studied at Westminster School which he entered in 1764. He became known for his amusing drawings both there and at Catharine Hall, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 30 Jan. 1768. Bunbury left Cambridge without taking a degree and spent several years traveling in France and Italy (where he may have studied drawing); his travels resulted in a large portfolio of drawings which he had professionally etched. Even at an early stage of his career, Bunbury’s drawings were sought after by collectors including Horace Walpole. He was living at Priory Gardens, Whitehall, on 26 Aug. 1771 when he married Catherine Horneck, a minor, at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. They had two sons, Charles John (1772-98) and Henry Edward (1778-1860). From about 1775-84 Bunbury served as comptroller of the army accounts; he also joined the West Suffolk militia where he rose to become lieutenant-colonel. He was an innovative artist who made illustrations for books but also developed a system for telling stories through humorous images displayed in sequence on a strip. He was appointed groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of York in 1787. Two illustrated books, An Academy for Grown Horsemen (1787) and Annals of Horsemanship (1791), were issued as by “Geoffrey Gambado” and went to multiple editions. He was profoundly affected by the deaths of his son Charles in 1798 and his wife Catherine in 1799 and, abandoning some large-scale illustration projects he had taken on, he spent his final years in Keswick, Cumberland, where he painted in oils. He died at Keswick on 7 May 1811 and was buried in the churchyard there. (ODNB 25 July 2023; ancestry.co.uk 25 July 2025; ESTC; Robert H. O’Connor, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Tales of the Devil: a Note,” Wordsworth Circle 15 [1984], 81-82)
Other Names:
- H. Bunbury