CASTLEY, Annie Elizabeth
As Annie Elizabeth Butchard, she was born at Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent on 30 April 1871, daughter of George Butchard (19 May 1838-6 August 1901), an engineer ship builder & ship-owner, and his wife Mary Jane Gibb (1841-1896), eldest daughter of William Gibb of Above Bar, Southampton, who married at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Southampton on 10 April 1860. In 1881, Annie was a 10-year-old, living at ‘Ellerslie’, Milton-next-Gravesend with her parents, 42-year-old George, who was born at Liverpool and 40-year-old Scottish born Mary Jane, and her four siblings, Agnes Annie 20, who was born at Southampton, George William (1864-1945), John Alexander 11 and Jane Douglas (1872-1963), who were all born at Gravesend, and they were still living there in 1901. Annie was educated at Gravesend Municipal Technical School, known as Gravesend School of Art and in 1895 her work passed for an Art Teacher's Certificate. By 1911, Annie was on a visit to 21 Cromwell Crescent, Kensington, London, the home of 83-year-old widow, Georgiana Luke and her 39-year-old daughter Mabel Larkins Luke. Annie married at St Martin’s, London in 1916, as his second wife, Thomas Gilbert Power Castley (16 January 1871-14 September 1952), who was born at Earl Stonham, Suffolk and was a schoolteacher at Henley-on-Thames, from when Annie painted under the name of Annie Castley. Her husband had married his first wife Margaret Mary Wright, daughter of Frederick Robert Wright of Deerbolt's Hall, Earl Stonham, at St Leonard's Church, Streatham on 2 April 1902 and they divorced over her adultery in January 1913 after having one child. In 1921 Thomas, who was a schoolmaster, and Annie were boarders at 17 St John's Road, Bungay, Suffolk. Annie Castley was a watercolour landscape painter and a member of the Ipswich Art Club 1932-1935 where she exhibited from Clock House’, Little Stonham, Suffolk, eight works, the subjects were mostly local views and rural scenes including in 1932 ‘The Garden Gate’, 'A Surrey Farmyard', ‘An Autumn Tangle’ and ‘Through the Barn Doors’, in 1933 'From Christchurch Quay' and 'Lilac', in 1935 'Crag Path, Aldeburgh' and 'Clock House, Little Stonham'. Annie Elizabeth Castley was of 253 Nacton Road, Ipswich when she died at The Nook, Melbury Osmond, Dorset on 31 May 1949, aged 78, and buried at Melbury Osmond.