DOWN, Katherine Thornton
Katherine Thornton Down was born at Ventor, Isle of Wight, Hampshire on 18 August 1889 and baptised on 24 September 1889, daughter of William Thornton Down (1844-17 March 1932), a commander in the Royal Navy, and his first wife Emily Maude Hall (1850-13 December 1900), daughter of the late Alexander Hall of Watergate, Sussex, who married at St Peter's Church, Woolavington, Midhurst on 25 November 1880, William Down married secondly on 1 January 1903, Fanny Irene née Adams. In 1911, Katherine was a 21-year-old, living at Spearpoint, Kennington, Ashford, Kent with her 67-year-old father, now a captain in the Royal Navy, his new wife of eight years, 43-year-old Fanny Irene née Richards-Adams, who had been a governess to the children, and three of her seven siblings, Caroline 29, Victoria 23 and John 19. A watercolour landscape artist, Katharine moved to 11 Broughton Road, Ipswich and as Miss K. Thornton Down was a member of the Ipswich Art Club 1933-1934, exhibiting from the East Suffolk Hospital, Ipswich in 1933, four watercolours of the Norfolk Broads ‘Weyford Bridge’, 'Twilight, Horsey Mere', 'Horsey' and ‘Horsey Church’. In 1939, Katherine Thornton Down was a state registered nurse, living at 5 Stourcliffe Avenue, Bournemouth, Hampshire where she died on 11 January 1940, aged 50, she was unmarried.