HOOPER, Millicent Lettice
As Millicent Lettice Marjorie Downing, she was born at Markstone, Dublin, Ireland on 11 February 1892, daughter of John George Downing, an Indian army pensioner, and his wife Alma Catherine née Kieser (1854-10 July 1931), who married at Kidderpore St Stephen, Bengal, India on 19 December 1880. By 1905 they had moved to Suffolk and in 1911, Millicent was a 19-year-old, living at Great Bealings with her parents, 55-year-old John George, born Enniskillen, co. Fermanagh, and 50-year-old Alma, born Blackheath, Kent, and three elder sibling sisters, Mary Alma 25, Dorothy Mildred 22 and Jessie Winnifred 21, all born in India. Millicent married at St Mary's Church, Great Bealings on 20 February 1918, Harold Ridley Hooper (9 April 1885-5 August 1953), an Ipswich architect, and she painted under the name of Millicent Hooper. A painter of portraits and flower subjects and a member of Ipswich Art Club 1922-1957 and exhibited from Bridge Cottage, Playford, Ipswich in 1925, three miniatures 'Henry Butcher, Esq.', 'Mrs Church' and 'Mr Cyril Butcher' and in 1933 as M. L. Hooper, from 50 Tuddenham Road, Ipswich, a watercolour 'Head', in 1943 'Lilac' and 'The Yard', in 1946 'Heads' and 'Jim', in 1948 'Head' and in 1950 ‘Marigolds’ and 'John'. In 1939 she was living at 50 Tuddenham Road, Ipswich with her husband Harold, presently a brevet Colonel in the Army. Millicent Lettice Marjorie Hooper died at 43 Playford Road, Rushmere St Andrew, Ipswich on 18 September 1957, aged 65.