WILLIS, Caroline Fanny
Caroline Fanny Willis was born at Broad Street, Little Dean, Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire in 1851 and baptised on 28 March 1851, daughter of Revd Henry Mark Willis (1818-21 January 1897), perpetual curate of Little Dean, and his wife Maria Simpson Gaye (c1821-1908), eldest daughter of Charles Seaman Gaye of Shefford, Bedfordshire, who married at St George's Hanover Square, London on 19 May 1846. In 1857, Caroline's father was instituted rector of Trimley St Mary, Felixstowe, Suffolk where the family remained until Henry's death in 1897, when Caroline and her widowed mother moved to Pond House in the adjoining village of Bucklesham. Caroline was a painter in watercolour of flowers, still life and landscapes and a member of Ipswich Art Club 1876-1894 and exhibited from Trimley St Mary in 1880, 'Berries' and 'Young Thrush', in 1884 three watercolours 'Pyracantha Berries', 'Pyrus Japonica' and 'Autumn Crocuses' and in 1893 landscape views 'Eye Church' and 'Harwich' and was a regular exhibitor showing at least twenty-five works. Her mother died at Pond House in 1908 and Caroline Fanny Willis continued living there until her death on 9 November 1933, aged 82, she was unmarried.