Cicely Hilda Farmer (1870 – 7 May 1955) was a New Zealand-born British novelist and travel writer.
Cicely Hilda Farmer | |
|---|---|
 Farmer in 1913 | |
| Born | 1870 One Tree Hill, Auckland, New Zealand |
| Died | 7 May 1955 Chelsea, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | Baden Powell (father-in-law) Monier Monier-Williams (father-in-law) |
She was born in One Tree Hill, Auckland in 1870, the daughter of James and Julie Farmer.[1]
Warington Baden-Powell, founder of the Sea Scouts, came ashore in New Zealand when his father Prof Rev Baden Powell died, and retrained there as a lawyer specialising in maritime law.[1] He met Farmer in Auckland and they became secretly engaged in 1893.[1] Farmer was presented at court in London as a debutant in 1893, and returned to New Zealand, where she lived until she married in 1913.[1]
20 years after becoming engaged, she married Warington Baden-Powell at All Saints Church, Knightsbridge (now the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints) on 13 September 1913.[2] Her wedding dress of white silk satin, made by Reville and Rossiter of Hanover Square, is in the permanent collection of the V&A in London.[2] Also included are the train, shoes (by C. Moykopf, Burlington Arcade), stocking, gloves and a headdress of white ostrich plumes for when it was worn for a May Court in 1914.[2]
Baden-Powell died in 1921. In 1927 she married Montagu Sneade Faithfull Monier-Williams (1860–1931), British surgeon, expert figure skater and writer, a widower with two children, and the son of Monier Monier-Williams.[3][4][5] After the wedding they retired to an artistic commune at the Château Royal de Collioure in Collioure in the French Pyrenees close to the Spanish border, where he was a keen viticulturist.[5]
Artemis Weds was reviewed by The New York Times.[6]
In 1939, by deed poll, she renounced the surname Monier-Williams and was henceforth Cicely Hilda Baden-Powell again.[7] At the time, her address was Milden House, Dixwell Road, Folkestone, Kent.[7]
She died in Chelsea, London on 7 May 1955, and was buried in the Farmer family plot at St Andrews Cathedral's Eastern Cemetery, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, alongside her first husband.[8]
Publications edit
Novels edit
- The Painted Show, 1924
- Waters of Fayle, 1925
- The Bending Sickle, William Morrow, New York, 1931
- Anna, Faber and Faber, London, 1931
- Artemis Weds, William Morrow, New York, 1932, dust jacket by Paul Wenck.[9]
Non-fiction edit
- Dragons and a Bell, 1931 (about a trip through China, Malaysia, Burma, and Sri Lanka)
- Sunrise Over India, Victor Gollancz, 1934 (another travel book)
References edit
- ^ a b c d Bird, Ron. "NZ SEA SCOUTS JOIN 100TH COMMEMORATION" (PDF). Professional Skipper. No. November/December 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ a b c "Wedding Dress 13 September 1913 (worn)". V&A. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ "Monier-Williams, Montagu Sneade Faithfull, (1860–1931), physician and surgeon". National Archives. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
- ^ "Montagu Monier-Williams, The Doctor Who Treated Figure Skating". skateguard. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
- ^ a b "Obituary" (PDF). BMJ. 25 July 1931. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
- ^ WALLACE, MARGARET (17 July 1932). "English Society in the Years Since 1925; ARTEMIS WEDS. By Cicely Farmer. 314 pp. New York: William Morrow & Co. $2.50". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ a b "London Gazette" (PDF). The London Gazette. 17 March 1939. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
- ^ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837–2007". familysearch.org. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
- ^ Salisbury, Martin (2017). The illustrated dust jacket, 1920–1970. London. pp. 186–187. ISBN 9780500519134. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
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