LITHIBY, Beatrice Ethel

1889 - 1966

Beatrice Ethel Lithiby was born at Northcote, Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey on 4 December 1889, daughter of [Sir] John Lithiby (1853-14 February 1936), a barrister, and his wife Ethel Stewart née Smith (1860-1943), stepdaughter of Worthington Evans of Spring Grove, Osterley Park, who married at St Mary's Spring Grove, Middlesex on 2 February 1888. By 1901, they had moved to 11 Porchester Square, Paddington but in 1911, although the family were still there, Beatrice was out of the country but was back at Porchester Square by 1921. Beatrice studied at the Royal Academy Schools and served in the First World War and, on the death of her father, then Sir John Lithiby in 1936, set up her studio at Wantage, Berkshire but by 1939, an artist living at Dower House, Waltham Cross, Essex with others. A painter and designer, specialising in church furnishings and stained glass and a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. She again served her country as a ranking army officer during the Second World War, being awarded an M.B.E. to be followed by an O.B.E. in 1944 and was the official war artist for the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps when the Imperial War Museum exhibited some of her works. She exhibited at the Ipswich Art Society in 1933, from 11 Porchester Square, London, a watercolour 'In Ipswich Dock' and in 1937 from 56 Arthur Court, Queen's Road, London W.2, 'The Killoran at Ipswich', but only became a member of the Ipswich Art Club in 1946. In her later years she concentrated on landscapes in oil and in watercolour and again exhibited at Ipswich Art Club but from Milverton, Garfield Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk in 1948, an oil 'V.J. Day on the Orwell' and a watercolour 'A Flurry on the Orwell'. She exhibited at the Royal Academy also showing at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours; Walker Art Gallery; the Society of Women Artists and in the provinces. Beatrice Ethel Lithiby died at The Guildry, Belmont, Wantage, Berkshire on 25 July 1966, she was unmarried although when a student she was due to become engaged to a fellow student, Frank Skinner, when he returned from military service but he was killed action on the Somme in July 1916 and Beatrice marked the anniversary of his death each year with a notice in The Daily Telegraph. She was the author of 'A Guide to Wantage Church'.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 11 Porchester Square, West London
1924 695 The Cathedral, Ypres
1928 743 Chioggia on the Venetian Lagoon
1929 736 The Old Barn at Langarth
1930 881 An Irish Farm
         933 Old Towers at San Gimignano

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Works by This Artist