Wikipedia

Mary Lobb

Mary Frances Vivian Lobb (1878 – 1939) was an English Land Army volunteer and life companion to the English designer May Morris for 22 years.

Mary Lobb
Born(1878-10-01)1 October 1878
Cornwall
Died27 March 1939(1939-03-27) (aged 60)
Kelmscott
Other namesMiss Vivian Lobb[1]: 316 
PartnerMay Morris

Early life

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Mary Lobb was companion to May Morris who is shown in this photograph taken in 1909.

Mary Francis Vivian Lobb was born in New Malden, Surrey in 1878.[1]: 278  Her parents were Nicholas William Lobb and Emma Vivian Lobb, and she was the second of their five children.[2] Lobb grew up in Penerthwin and was educated at St. Thomas College in Launceston.[2]

Personal life

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Lobb was a Land Girl, or Land Army volunteer, in World War I. In 1917 Lobb met May Morris, who was living at Kelmscott Manor, which had been her father William Morris' country retreat.[3][4] Morris had had two relationships with men that had failed before meeting Lobb.[5] Lobb moved in, initially serving as a gardener.[6] Lobb and Morris would spend the rest of their lives together.[7] Lobb was known for wearing sturdy clothes, with a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers.[8] Evelyn Waugh described Lobb as a 'hermaphrodite'[9] and George Bernard Shaw also described Lobb in negative terms.[2] As time passed, Lobb and Morris traveled through Europe, including visits to Iceland[10] and Gwbert in Wales.[1]: 281 

May Morris died in 1938, leaving £12,000 to Mary Lobb and tenure of Kelmscott Manor, where Lobb remained until her death the following year.[11][1]: 281 Following Morris' death some of the objects in Kelmscott Manor were auctioned off.[12] Lobb donated the jewellery that Morris had left to her to Victoria and Albert Museum in London,[13] and gave the city of Exeter, England her Icelandic artifacts[14] which included a drinking horn.[15]

Death

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Lobb died of heart disease in 1939.[1]: 298  Her will stipulated she was to have no coffin, only a plain oblong box.[14] She was cremated; her wish was for her ashes to be "scattered on a Cornish Moor preferably Bosporthennis Manor".[2] She left her notebooks to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.[2]

In 2017, the Kelmscott Manor Museum had an exhibit centered on Lobb.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Jan Marsh (1986). Jane and May Morris. Internet Archive. Pandora Press. ISBN 978-0-86358-026-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e Evans, Simon. "The Eclectic Collection of Miss M.F.V. Lobb" (PDF). National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  3. ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (1995). William Morris : a life for our time. Internet Archive. New York : Knopf. p. 679. ISBN 978-0-394-58531-4.
  4. ^ Society of Antiquaries of London (2013). Kelmscott Manor & estate conservation management plan. pp. 26–27.
  5. ^ Dixon, Anne Campbell (12 April 2003). "Life's rich tapestry Drug addiction, a menage a trois, insanity, lesbianism . . . Kelmscott saw it all when William Morris moved his family - and wife's lover - there". The Daily Telegraph; London (UK) [London (UK)]. p. 8 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ "Bringing real LGBT lives to life". Western Mail; Cardiff (UK) [Cardiff (UK)]. 29 February 2020. p. 16 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Daly, Gay (1989). Pre-Raphaelites in love. Internet Archive. New York : Ticknor & Fields. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-89919-450-9.
  8. ^ Ricketts, Rita (2010-11-01). "International Dateline-Earthly Paradise". Against the Grain. 22 (5). doi:10.7771/2380-176X.5674. ISSN 2380-176X.
  9. ^ Sanderson, David (October 18, 2017). "Journal reveals wilderness years of artist May Morris". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  10. ^ Jonsdottir, Gudrun (1986). "May Morris and Miss Lobb in Iceland · William Morris Archive". Journal of William Morris Studies. 7 (1). Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  11. ^ "Bequests of poet's daughter". Birmingham Gazette. 1939-01-31. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  12. ^ Chitty, Gill; Stocker, David (2019). "Westerwald Stoneware at Kelmscott Manor: Morris, Pottery and the Politics of Production" (PDF). The Antiquaries Journal. 99: 363–397. doi:10.1017/S0003581519000027. ISSN 0003-5815.
  13. ^ "Vivian Lobb | V&A Explore The Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  14. ^ a b "Bequest of Icelandic articles to Exeter R.A.M. Museum". The Express and Echo. 1939-10-05. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  15. ^ "An unusual souvenir from trip: This drinking horn was one of a number of items donated to the museum by Mary Lobb in 1939". Express & Echo; Exeter (UK) [Exeter (UK)]. 4 June 2009. p. 16.
  16. ^ "Mary Lobb — From Cornwall to Kelmscott: A Life Revealed - Exhibition at Kelmscott Manor - WhichMuseum". whichmuseum.com. Retrieved 2022-06-18.

Further reading

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