WILLIAMS, Ada Mary

1864 - 1946

Ada Mary Williams was born at Brentford, Middlesex on 26 August 1864, daughter of Henry Williams (1825-25 December 1905), a woollen warehouseman, and his wife Ada Bright (1838-1895), fourth daughter of the late Samuel Bright, Esq. of Bishop's Castle, who married at Clun, Shropshire on 15 August 1861. In 1881, young Ada was a 16-year-old scholar, living at Upper Addiscombe Road, Croydon with her parents, 55-year-old Henry, who was born at Trimley St Martin, Suffolk, and 43-year-old Ada, with siblings Frank Hanson 18, Arthur R. 12, Alan 10 and Winifred 8 and ten years later Ada was a 27-year-old art student teacher, still living with her family now at 27 Dukes Avenue, Chiswick. In 1911, a 'painter (artist)', living with her brother Alan and his wife, at 16 Messoline Avenue, Horn Lane, Acton. Known for her drawings of old buildings and for watercolours she was one of the longest serving members of the Ipswich Art Club from 1895 until 1952, and exhibited from 16 Messaline Avenue, Acton, London W.3 in 1895, five works 'Tewksbury', 'Bilbury, Gloucestershire', 'High Street, Tewksbury', 'Shingle Street, Suffolk' and 'Old Baptist Chapel Court, Tewksbury', in 1927 eleven watercolours 'Tower Ramparts, Ipswich', 'Wolsey's Gate, Ipswich', 'Old House, St Mary Elms, Ipswich', 'Abbot's Court, Fore Hamlet, Ipswich', 'The Little Ship at Cavendish, Suffolk', 'Weobly, Hertfordshire', 'Water Street, Lavenham', 'Old House, Water Street, Lavenham', 'The Ancient House, Ipswich', 'The Old Guildhall, Lavenham' and 'The Old Parliament House, Gloucester'. In 1944 she exhibited three watercolours 'Tower Ramparts', 'The Orwell' and 'Lady Lane, Lavenham' and over the years exhibited over 260 works, mostly local views. A regular entrant for 'The Studio' magazine landscape competitions and often a prize winner and exhibited at the Society of Women Artists 1901-1903 from 'Walcot', Shee Road, East Acton. Her address from where she exhibited in the 1930s was 16 Messaline Avenue, Acton and where she was living in 1939, describing herself as 'artist', with her widowed brother Alan. At the centenary exhibition of Ipswich Art Club in 1974, her watercolour 'Cottages at Halifax, Ipswich' was exhibited and she was included in 'Suffolk: A Female Focus' at the Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich in 1999. Ada Mary Williams died at 13 Egerton Road, Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, Hampshire on 10 January 1946, she was unmarried.

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Works by This Artist