Unseen collection of Rupert the Bear's adventures

For generations, Rupert Bear was a fixture of British childhood, but behind the familiar illustrations lies a quieter story of the artist who shaped him.

The beloved character was created in 1920 by Mary Tourtel and the illustrator, Alfred Edmeades Bestall helped bring the bear to life.

In a house in Milford, Surrey, that story is preserved in a remarkable private archive belonging to Bestall's goddaughter, Caroline G Bott.

Tucked among diaries, letters and parcels of drawings are glimpses of an illustrator who brought Rupert to life, yet remained uneasy with fame.

Bott told Secret Surrey the recognition surrounding Bestall, who succeeded creator Mary Tourtel in 1935, left him "uneasy".

All the illustrator wanted, she said, was to delight children with the bear's magical adventures.

"Alfred was under considerable stress producing Rupert for the Daily Express," Bott added.

She recalled visiting him on his 93rd birthday, when he entrusted her with a lifetime of artwork that had been stored as brown paper parcels in the loft of his Snowdonia home.

"We brought them home and spread them out on the table in a big room. It was like opening Christmas presents, they were all his early artwork," she said.

Bott said all the displays in Milford were original artwork by Bestall, who was her father's first cousin.

The collection is incomplete, rough drawings that were "deliberately half-done".

"The Daily Express said he could keep the endpapers for the artwork, which is on display here," she added.

Bott said Bestall was a freelance artist but was finding it "increasingly difficult" to make ends meet.

"Mary Tourtel was beginning to lose her eyesight so the Daily Express advertised for another artist," she added.

Bestall was hired and became the illustrator for Rupert for 30 years.

Bott said even Paul McCartney had visited her godfather.

"They were both artists and they had an admiration for each other," she said.

McCartney wrote We All Stand Together, also known as the Frog Chorus, and it was featured in the animated film Rupert and the Frog Song.

"Rupert always treated everyone kindly, and uncle Fred always saw the best in people," Bott said.

"I think Rupert was sort of part of him in a way."

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