PENRAVEN, Gertrude Ambrose

1853 - 1936

As Gertrude Murfin, an English subject, she was born in France in 1853, only child of Rowena Fawcett Murfin (1834-24 January 1892), who married at Exeter on 23 February 1859, Ambrose Stomatio Sevastopulo (1833-28 September 1881), a turkish cotton merchant, when Gertrude took the name Gertrude Ambrose Sevastopulo. Her father died at Westbury on Trym, Bristol in 1881 when Rowena inherited his estates and when she died at 6 Avonmore Mansions, West Kensington, London on 24 January 1892, left her estate to her son-in-law, Allan Frederick Penraven. Gertrude, as Gertrude Ambrose Sevastopulo, married, as his second wife, at St Mary Abbott's, Kensington on 19 December 1891, Allan Frederick Penraven, a dental surgeon, and their daughter Rowena, was born at Ipswich in 1894. In 1901 they were living at 51 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich and by 1911 had moved next door to No 49. Over the years Gertrude, like her husband, amended her age, place of birth and parentage. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1891-1903 and exhibited two watercolours in 1891, 'Sunset, Blackpool' and 'Spring Flowers'. Gertrude Penraven died at 35 Chepstow Villas, Bayswater, London on 24 July 1936, aged 83, and her estate was inherited by their only child, unmarried daughter Rowena Gertrude Ambrose Penraven (1894-1960).