LINGWOOD, Bessie Ellen
Bessie Ellen Lingwood was born at Bucklesham, near Ipswich, in January 1861, daughter of Horace Lingwood (1834-1 January 1920), a manure agent, and his wife Anne née Jeckell (1830-19 November 1921), who married at Norwich in 1858. In 1871, Bessie was a 10-year-old, living at Bosmere Mill, Creeting All Saints’, Suffolk with her parents, 37-year-old Horace, born at Battisford, Suffolk and 40-year-old Anne, born at Wymondham, Norfolk and two siblings Horace Jeckell and Thomas Edward 8. Bessie studied at the Ipswich School of Science & Art and was awarded a certificate for her freehand drawing and in 1884 passed her Advanced Art Examinations in Painting from Still Life and exhibited her prize-winning watercolour at South Kensington School of Art. Although not a member, Bessie exhibited from Creeting, Needham Market, Ipswich at the Ipswich Fine Art Club in 1881, nine watercolours including ‘River Gems’, in 1882 eight watercolours including 'Poppies', in 1883 twelve watercolours including 'Water Mill near Needham Market', in 1884 ten watercolours which were all still life, and she continued to exhibit regularly. As Miss Lingwood of Creeting she also exhibited at the Bury St Edmund's Fine Art Society in 1882 and in 1883, a watercolour 'Fruit' which won the second prize of one guinea and at their fifth exhibition in 1884. Bessie also exhibited at the Woodbridge Art Exhibition at the Assembly Rooms, Woodbridge in April 1887, three watercolours 'Fruit', 'Wild Roses' and 'Honeysuckle' plus a drawing and hand painted birthday cards and in 1889 several watercolours. In 1890 she won a prize for a still life at Stafford School of Art. In 1900, an artist at 2 Westgate Street, Ipswich, which may have been her studio, as she continued living with her mother at Bosmere Mill until at least 1921. Bessie Ellen Lingwood died at 4 Station Road, Trimley St Mary, Felixstowe, Suffolk on 7 November 1927, aged 66, she was unmarried.