Ursula Mary Fookes

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Marilyn Stone
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Ursula Mary Fookes 1906 1991 Ursula Fookes, born on 27 June, 1906 at St John s Wood, London, was the only child of George Hammond Fookes, an accountant, and Amy Mary Griffiths.

1 Ursula Mary Fookes Ursula Fookes, born on 27 June, 1906 at St John s Wood, London, was the only child of George Hammond Fookes, an accountant, and Amy Mary Griffiths. When Ursula died at the age of 85, her only relations were the children or grandchildren of her cousins. So little was known about her that it came as a complete surprise to find that when a locked room was opened after her death, in preparation for the auctioning of her property, it contained oil paintings, watercolours and colour linocuts in differing stages of completion. No surviving member of the family ever knew she had been an artist. All that was known was that she lived with Elizabeth Forster (a BBC Producer and recognised knitting pattern designer) at the Double House, Wiveton, North Norfolk. Her interests were cats and ornithology. Urmie Little is known about her early life except that she studied at The Grosvenor School of Modern Art. The school was found by the etcher and wood engraver Iain Macnab ( ) in 1925 and Claude Flight ( ) taught the art and craft of the colour linocut. The prints produced by the artists of this school were influenced by the Vorticist movment and usually depict contemporary subjects often illustrating objects in motion, such as a ship at sea, people under umbrellas rushing through the rain or people playing

2 different sports. Urusla attended the school between and her linocuts show these characteristics. Her prints were exhibited at the Ward Gallery in the annual exhibitions arranged by and at the instigation of Claude Flight in the 1930s.

3 At the same time she also painted in watercolour and oils and up to 1939 travelled abroad, sometimes in the company of the wood engraver Pauline Logan (Mrs Pauline Haynes) with whom she shared a studio in Pimlico. These paintings show no Vorticist influence but resemble to some extent the British Post-impressionists and were exhibited at the New English Art Club. In 1939 she moved, with her mother and aunt, to Lymington where she did war work. In June 1945 she went to Belgium, Holland and Germany running a mobile NAAFI canteen. She kept a diary from 31 st May 1945 go 3 June 1946 but nowhere does she mention painting or even sketching. She does mention the birds she saw and this became her main interest in later life. Pauline Haynes described her as an enthusiastic and knowledgeable birdwatcher. It appears she stopped painting completely. The diary reveals nothing about her art. The main interest is the picture of life in Germany immediately after the war, the attitude of the ordinary German people to the British and of the occupying British to the Germans. On arriving in Germany Ursula sees herself as one of the conquering nations who had overcome the Germans. She is puzzled by the attitude of the Germans towards their conquerors on a number of occasions as in the following entry, not realising that by the end of the war some Germans felt they had been liberated from the Nazis. a deputation from the towns people today. It was to ask that we should sack one of the Germans working in the garden. It seems that he was the local bad lad and the other Germans didn t think he was a fit person to work for the British. Truly an odd race.

just before I left, the Jerry maids presented me with a huge bunch of red and white lilacs very touching.

4 Menu for demob party 1945/46 She was thrilled by the sight of the damage done by Guy Gibson and the dam busters ; later on, when she had met the civilians and seen the damage done to some of the towns she was not so sure about her attitude to them. just before I left, the Jerry maids presented me with a huge bunch of red and white lilacs very touching. Again I though what a pity it was we had to fight them. Ursula s retirement was spent in Wiveton, Norfolk having apparently put aside much of her creative endeavour. However she did continue to do posters for

5 village fetes and watercolours of Norfolk churches and villages. There is a memorial to her on the wall, outside Wiveton Church.

6 Ursula Fookes, The Arched Bridge (ca. 1930)

7 Ursula Fookes, Dancers (ca. 1930)

8 Ursula Fookes, Colonnade (ca. 1930)

9 Ursula Fookes, Pastoral Scene (ca. 1930)

10 Ursula Fookes, Shakespeare Theatre Stratford (ca. 1930)

11 Ursula Fookes, Mining Town (ca. 1930)

12 Ursula Fookes, The Village (ca. 1930)

13 Ursula Fookes, Liner (ca. 1930)

14 Ursula Mary Fookes,

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