HARRAP, Phyllis

1902 - 1974

As Phyllis Collett Craven she was born at Hampstead, London on 3 July 1902, second daughter of John Carpenter Craven (1850-1917), a post office engineer who was born at Luton, Bedfordshire, and his wife Florence Gertrude Ann Hall, née Collett (1873-1928), who was born at Gloucestershire, and who married at Hampstead in 1899. In 1911, 51-year-old John and 37-year-old Florence were living at 86 Agamemnon Road, Hampstead with their two daughters Lorna Collett 11 and Phyllis Collett 8, both born at Hampstead. Lorna (1899-1980) married at Hampstead in 1925 Robert North. Her father died at 26 Cross Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire on 17 March 1917 and in 1921 her mother was a nurse and a visitor at 4 Wildwood Terrace, North End, Hampstead, the home of the Lambert family, daughter Lorna was a trainee nurse at Queen Mary Hospital, Carshalton and Phyllis is noted as living at Marylebone Grammar School. Phyllis studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts where she specialised in drawing from the nude, and costume life and book illustration and spent time at the Royal Drawing Society training class for teachers but she commenced work at the Sun Engraving Works at Watford. She married at Watford in 1927, Walter Ernest Curley Harrap (14 August 1901-22 November 1993), a clerk in Westminster Bank, and their son Martin J. was born at Leighton Buzzard, Hertfordshire in 1928. In 1939 they were living at 103 Withersfield Road, Haverhill, Suffolk where Phyllis was able to take her art painting in earnest, painting not only in watercolour but also in oil paints, she also drew sketches for a children's book written by her sister Lorna North 'Araminta, Arabella & Aristide'. Whilst living at Haverhill she became friends with Sydney William Holbrook and his wife who were living in the adjoining village of Sturmer. In 1948 her husband was appointed manager of the Westminster Bank in Bury St Edmund's where they lived in an apartment above the bank on the Cornhill and where Phyllis continued her painting. A book illustrator of Anthony Trollope's 'The Warden' (1949) and in 1946 painted an oil of the Cupola House, Bury St Edmund’s. She exhibited at Norwich in 1951 and in 1952 at the Phoenix Art Gallery, Lavenham 'The Lost Theatre, Bury St Edmund's and in 1954 at the Bury St Edmund's Art Society at the School of Art Building her oil 'The Far Hall'. In 1955 they moved to Maldon, Essex and her husband retired in 1961, but they continued to live in Maldon. Phyllis Collett Harrap died at Maldon in August 1974. An exhibition of her paintings was held at the Manor House Museum, Bury St Edmund's 28 February-30 April 1997 which had some forty-seven of her works on show, the catalogue and list of paintings is at the Suffolk Record Office, now at The Hold, Ipswich.

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Works by This Artist