FOSTER-MELLIAR, Gladys Dewsbury
Gladys Dewsbury Foster Melliar was born at Tostock, Suffolk on 16 May 1879, fifth of the six children of Revd Andrew Foster Melliar (1841-14 November 1904), curate at Tostock, and his wife Catherine Lucretia Dewsbury (1840-9 February 1897), daughter of the late Peter Richard Dewsbury of Great Berkhamstead, who married at North Aston, Oxfordshire on 14 December 1864. In 1881, Gladys was a 1-year-old, living at Tostock Rectory with her parents, 39-year-old Andrew and 40-year-old Catherine, and two older siblings, John Kenelm Foster 5 and Elsie Foster 4, both born at Redgrave, Suffolk. In 1885 her father was instituted to the rectory and parish of Sproughton, near Ipswich. The family all had Foster as a Christian name but when Gladys was an artist it was hyphenated to Foster-Melliar. Gladys studied at the Ipswich School of Science and Art, passing several art examinations in 1896. In 1911, a 31-year-old artist sculptor, visiting Dora Mason at her home at Sproughton Manor, Ipswich. A member and exhibitor at the Ipswich Art Club 1909-1916, exhibiting from Alexandra House, Kensington Gore, London in 1909, a plaster 'Head', in 1910 a watercolour 'Blakeney Point' and two statuettes, a plaster 'Study from Life' and a bronze 'Melisande', in 1911 two sculptures 'The Mirror' and 'St George', two watercolours 'The Mill' and 'The Marshes at Evening', in 1912 she exhibited from Sproughton Manor, a bronze 'The Pitcher Girl', a watercolour 'The Wood Path', in 1913 a sculpture 'Portrait of a Lady', in 1914 three etchings and two watercolours 'Scarlet Bourganvilla, Teneriffe' and 'The Store, Oratava, Teneriffe' with her last exhibit in 1915, she also exhibited at the Royal Academy. She spent time in South Africa and in Spain but in 1939, was a retired Christian Scientist Practitioner, living at Hill Field Cottage, Sproughton, the home of Ernest and Gertrude Butcher, both teachers of music. She married late in life at Ipswich School in 1942, Oriel Riviere Burney (28 April 1899-9 February 1978), a teacher. Gladys Dewsbury Burney was of Hall Field Cottage, Sproughton, Ipswich when she died at Brooke House Nursing Home, Henley Road, Ipswich on 14 September 1964, aged 85.
Royal Academy Exhibits
from 90 Beaufort Mansions, Chelsea
1910 1745 Hesitation - bronze statuette
1870 The Mirror - bronze statuette
from Chenil & Co., 183a King's Road, Chelsea
1913 1885 Portrait of a Lady - bronze bust