Phyllis Gardner

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For the clinical pharmacologist, see Phyllis Gardner (clinical pharmacologist).

A 1931 woodcut by Phyllis Gardner of Irish Wolfhound "Hy Niall"

Phyllis Gardner (6 October 1890 – 16 February 1939) was a writer, artist, and noted breeder of Irish Wolfhounds. She and Rupert Brooke had, on her side at least, a passionate relationship.[1] She attended the Slade School of Fine Art and was a suffragette when they met. Their conflicting politics, and his conflicted feelings, led the relationship to end.[2]

Biography

Gardner spent some of her early childhood in Athens, where her father,

Newnham College) and her uncle, Percy Gardner, was also an archaeologist.[4]

Phyllis Gardner's immediate family - her mother Mary, sister Delphis and brother Christopher - moved according to Professor Gardner's career. On their return to England, they settled in Tadworth, Surrey in a large house called Farm Corner, close to the Surrey Hills.

Gardner attended the progressive

Metropolitan Museum collection.[8]

Gardner spotted Rupert Brooke in a tea-room in King's Cross station in 1911 and she, her mother and Brooke shared a train compartment to Cambridge. During the journey, Gardner felt compelled to sketch a likeness of Brooke and upon arrival in Cambridge, Gardner was determined to discover who this young blond-haired man was, and how she could meet him.[9]

After Brooke's death in 1915, Gardner devoted her time to a local hospital which treated soldiers from the front.[3] Gardner found it difficult to cope with the loss of Brooke and found the hospital a welcome distraction.[10] When Brooke's fellow war poet Stanley Casson wrote Brooke and Skyros in 1921, a "quiet essay" on the passing of his friend, Gardner contributed woodcuts to illustrate the book.[11]

Gardner's memoir about her relationship with Brooke along with their letters to one another were deposited by Delphis in the

literary executor Edward Marsh tried to hide.[9] Indeed, Brooke's circle felt that Marsh's depiction of an exemplary young man cut down in his prime was a misleading portrayal of a more complex figure.[13]

In later life her family successfully bred

Maidenhead.[14] Gardner wrote a well-regarded history of the breed, which she and her sister illustrated.[15]

She died in February 1939 aged 48 from breast cancer.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Phyllis Gardner Headstone Appeal". The Rupert Brooke Society. Archived from the original on 15 October 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  2. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived
    from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  3. ^
    OCLC 891615997
    .
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48491. Retrieved 21 February 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the Eleventh Exhibition. (1916). pp.87-88. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. 2011. Archived
    from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  6. ^ Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue of the Eleventh Exhibition. The Royal Academy. 1916. pp. 87–88 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?record=VOL6203, accessed 19 May2017
  8. ^ "Chess set - Phyllis and Delphis Gardner". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  9. ^
    OCLC 1078839837
    .
  10. ^ "British Library". www.bl.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  11. ^ "[Book Review of Rupert Brooke and Skyros. By Stanley Casson. With woodcut illustrations by Phyllis Gardner]". The Spectator. 6 August 1921. p. 24. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  12. ^ Beckett, Lorna (Summer 2000). "The Memoir of Phyllis Gardner". The Rupert Brooke Society Magazine. No. 3. Archived from the original on 15 October 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  13. ^ Melody, Helen (24 April 2015). "Rupert Brooke and Phyllis Gardner". English and Drama blog. British Library. Archived from the original on 24 July 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  14. ^ "Coolafin Kennels". Irish Wolfhounds History. 9 September 2015. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2017. Coolafin was the kennel started by Phyllis Gardner, who lived in Maidenhead, Berkshire when she started in the breed.
  15. ^ Gardner, Phyllis, and Gardner, Delphis. The Irish Wolfhound. A Short Historical Sketch... With Over One Hundred Wood Engravings Specially Cut by the Author and Her Sister Delphis. Dundalgan Press, 1931. Reprint by Elizabeth C. Murphy 1981 ISBN 0 85221 104 x
  16. ^ Robert McCrum (29 March 2015). "Secret memoir uncovers the real life and loves of doomed war poet Rupert Brooke". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
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