SORSBIE, Gertrude Julia
Gertrude Julia Sorsbie was born at Folkestone, Kent in October 1873, fifth of the six daughters of Revd Robert Sorsbie (1826-26 February 1898), precentor of the Cathedral of Rochester, and his wife Mary Ann Kempson (1932-13 December 1914), eldest daughter of Revd William Brooke Kempson, who married at Charlcombe, Bath, Somerset on 26 April 1859. In 1881, Gertrude was a 7-year-old, living at Trinity Rectory, St Lawrence, Kent with her parents, 54-year-old Arthur, who was the local rector, and 48-year-old Mary, with siblings Mary Catherine 21, Elizabeth Louisa 18, Ada Constance 16, Edith Emily 11 and Ellen 9, all born in Kent. In 1891, a pupil at Hollanden, Leigh, Kent, the home of her 31-year-old sister Mary, an organist & teacher of music, when her parents were living in High Street, Clare, Suffolk where her father was the local vicar. Her father died at Inglis House, Colchester, Essex on 26 February 1898, aged 71 and in 1911, her widowed mother was living at 15 Inglis Road, Colchester with three of her unmarried daughters Mary, Ellen and Gertrude, who was an art mistress. Gertrude was a painter in watercolour and exhibited at the London Salon in 1911 'Asters', The Lily Pool' and 'The Colne, near Colchester' also exhibiting at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour 1893-1932, from Clare Vicarage, Suffolk in 1893, Colchester, Essex 1911 and from an accommodation address, 6 Prince Arthur Road, London in 1932. She emigrated to Queensland, Australia where in 1920 she registered as a teacher but returned to the U.K. on several occasions including in 1922 and 1934. She exhibited her work at 40th Queensland Art Society in 1928 and an exhibition of her and her pupil's works was held in June 1930 at Leumeah High School, Jones Street, Auchenflower, Brisbane which included English landscapes of the Norfolk Broads, Derwentwater, Cornwall and Maidstone and many Australian scenes. Gertrude Julia Sorsbie died at Susoma Cottage, Foch Street, Wynnum Central, Queensland on 28 March 1942, she was unmarried.