TEMPEST, Margaret

1892 - 1982

Margaret Mary Tempest was born at Parkfield, Park Road, Ipswich on 15 May 1892, daughter of Charles Ernest Tempest (1853-2 May 1931), a share broker, and his wife Frances Sarah Jacob (11 October 1860-11 March 1947), eldest daughter of Revd Canon James John Jacob, Charles and Frances married at Horningsham Parish Church, Warminster, Wiltshire on 8 May 1890. Margaret's father was a Justice of the Peace and a Mayor of Ipswich. Margaret studied at the Ipswich Art School passing her examinations in 1909, and at the Westminster School of Art and the Royal Drawing Society. A founder member of the Chelsea Illustrators in the summer of 1914, when twenty or so women graduated from the Westminster School of Art and resolved to make art their careers. They elected their teacher, Muriel Olive Cecile Goulden as president and planned to rent a studio from where they would teach, work, and sell their work and found suitable premises in an old a barn located at 59a Park Walk, Chelsea and Margaret Tempest was honorary secretary until it was disbanded in 1939 owing to the war. Margaret achieved fame as an illustrator of children's books, including Alison Uttley's 'The Little Grey Rabbit' series starting in 1929 and eventually contributed to thirty-four of the series and went on to illustrate many other children's stories, some of which she wrote herself, such as the 'Pinkie Mouse and the Curly Cobbler' books. Elected a member of Ipswich Art Club in 1920 and exhibited in 1923, three works 'Pin Mill', 'The Dream Boat' and 'Lullaby', and from 28 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich in 1932, two watercolours 'The Gateway to the Bazaar' and 'The High Court, Allahabad' and was a member of the committee in 1940, retiring in 1974 when she became a life member. Whilst living and working in Chelsea, she taught drawing in several private London homes. Her other passion was sailing, and she became Commodore of Pin Mill Sailing Club on the river Orwell near Ipswich and was a member of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club. In 1939, she was living at 28 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich with her mother and sibling brother Francis Lewis (28 May 1893-23 January 1951), a solicitor. She married at Ipswich in 1951 her widowed cousin, Sir Edward Grimwood Mears (21 January 1869-20 May 1963), a former Chief of Justice in Allahabad, India, when she became Lady Margaret Mears. She was of 3 St Edmund's Road, Ipswich when she died at Downing House Nursing Home, 10 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich on 23 July 1982. At the centenary exhibition of the Ipswich Art Club in 1974, she exhibited three watercolours 'Chestnut Fairies' and two illustrations from 'Little Grey Rabbit' and 'Belief for children' and her sketchbook. Other books illustrated by Tempest included 'No Rubbish There' (Collins 1936), 'Willow Witches Brook' (Collins 1944) and 'A Belief for Children' (Collins 1952) and together with Kathleen Fryer, the author and illustrator of 'Stories from the Bible (1955). She occasionally exhibited at the Society of Women Artists including 'Lords and Ladies' and 'Dandelions and Ann' (1918).

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Works by This Artist