Alford Usher Soord - The Lost Sheep

Alford Soord - A Brief Biography

Alford Usher Soord (1868-1915) was a British painter whose most famous work is a painting of The Parable Of The Lost Sheep, depicting a sheep stranded halfway down a steep cliff and the shepherd hanging perilously over the edge, risking his own life to save it.

Soord was born September 1, 1868, in Sunderland but brought up in York, at 1 St Martins Crescent, along with his siblings Helen and George. Soord's parents were Thomas Soord, Jr. (1832-1895) who was a corn merchant and Jane Latha Soord (b 1829). For several years Soord studied part-time at the York School of Art under John Windass, and afterwards at the Herkomer School of Painting at Bushey, founded by Sir Hubert von Herkomer. The Herkomer School’s students also included Lucy Kemp-Welch, who directed the School after Herkomer, George Harcourt, Amy Sawyer, Tom Mostyn, E. Borough Johnson, Henry Justice Ford, Roland Wheelwright, Hilda Fairbairn and C. L. Burns.

A number of Soord’s works were shown in the Royal Academy of Arts, including “Falls on the Conway” (1893), “The Golden Hour (1894), “Irish Fish-Girl” (1894), “Madame De X” (1897), “Portrait of a Lady (1898), “Wastwater, Cumberland" (1898), and "Portrait of Edward Wilson" (1910).

Soord’s most famous picture "The Lost Sheep" was also exhibited in 1898 in the Royal Academy. By 1916, over 300,000 reproductions of it had been sold in England and America; the work continues to be extremely popular more than a century after its creation.

Soord also worked as a magazine illustrator. Examples of his Illustrations titled “What Do You Think of That Letter?”, “There Isn’t Even a Watermark”, “The Boy Cried Out”, “I Watched”; all appear to illustrate a story in The Harmsworth Magazine of 1900.

Soord’s commission to paint the “Portrait of Edward Wilson” permitted the polar explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist some unusual moments of quiet. Badly in need of rest, Wilson forced himself to “'sit absolutely still for four hours on end for 3 or 4 days running” in Soord’s studio. Soord also painted both of Wilson’s parents. Wilson would perish in Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the antarctic in 1912. Soord’s “Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley” which serves as the frontispiece of “The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley” has been surrounded by scholarly comment for years, since the likeness resembles a work of Leonardo.


Soord married Evelyn Wayland Solly, who was born in September of 1865. She was the daughter of Edward Solly (F. R. S., F. R. A.) (1819-1886) and Alice S. Wayland (who were married September 13, 1851). Before her marriage, Miss Solly was herself an artist of note, who exhibited works titled “The Judgment of Paris” and “Babes in the Woods” in the Royal Academy in 1897. Her studio was at Merry-hill, Bushey, Herts. Evelyn and Alford Soord had two children, a son Chrystian, who was painted by Kate E. Cowdcroy in 1907, and who had a military career; and a daughter Mary whose grandson, musician David Izen, (whose father was the great clarinetist Bernard Izen) has posted a comment for us, which you may read, below.  (What a thrill to hear from a member of Soord's family!)

Alford U. Soord's studio was located at 11 Meadow Studio, Bushey. The bright and roomy studios were established by Sir Hubert von Herkomer to accommodate his art school students and associates. The studios were arranged in a long row connected by a corridor; each afforded amazing light from huge north facing skylights. The Meadow Studios were torn down in the 1970s. Soord died at Bushey on August 9, 1915.

Soord’s Paintings of Note Include:

Falls on the Conway, 1893
Irish Fish-Girl, 1894
The Golden Hour, 1894
Madame De X, 1897
Portrait of a Lady, 1898

The Good Shepherd, also known as: The Lost Sheep, St. Barnabas Church, Homerton, East London, England, 1898 or 1900

Figures in a Tree-lined Street with Church, Malton, North Yorks, 1890
H. R. H. The Duke of Clarence, 1893
Granny Wells, 1899
Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush, 1901
William Maitland, 1902
Lady Seated in an Interior, 1903
Young Woman Carrying a Water Jar along A Village Street, 1903
Christ Between Two Thieves
The Crucifixion – reredos – The Chapel, Oxford House in Bethnal Green, London, 1904
The Heavenly Host- Mural – St Andrew’s Church, Bethnal Green, London, 1904The Crucifixion - St. Barnabas Church, Homerton, East London, England, 1906
The Crucifixion - St. Bartholomew's Church, Brighton, 1912
And Some Fell Among Thorns, c1912
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1913
Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart, n.d. (biographer of Queen Victoria)
Edward Adrian Wilson, 1910 (The National Gallery)
John Reeve Brook (Bushey Museum of Art and Gallery)
Dr. Edward Thomas Wilson (Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum)
Mrs. Edward Thomas Wilson (Mary Agnes Whishaw Wilson) (Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum)
Portrait of an Unknown Man (Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum)
Anthony Buckle (York Museums Trust)
Alderman Sir Joseph Sykes Rymer (York Guildhall)
Miss Thorpe (York Museums Trust)
Isabel Douthett (York Museums Trust)
Mrs. Lowman (York Museums Trust)

For illustrations of some of these, visit: Works by A. U. Soord

(This is the most complete biography of Alford Usher Soord available on-line. If you wish to have references concerning my research, or if you know of other works by Soord, please contact me.)