Mabel Batten
Mabel Veronica Hatch Batten (née Hatch; 1856–1916) was a British singer of lieder.
Early life[edit]
She was born Mabel Hatch in a well-connected family.[1]
She studied in Dresden and Bruges, harmony and composition.[2]
Career[edit]
She was a leading "patroness of music and the arts, mezzo-soprano and composer" of drawing-room songs.[1] One of her best compositions was the setting of "The Queen's Last Ride" by the poem of Ella Wheeler Wilcox. She was an accomplished singer, pianist and guitar player.[3]
Personal life[edit]
In 1874 she married George Batten, secretary to the Viceroy of India.[1] They had one daughter, the painter and film maker Lady Cara Harris.[2]
In the 1880s she had a relationship with Wilfred Scawen Blunt.[2]
She was friends with composer Adela Maddison who, in 1893, dedicated her "Deux Melodies" to her.[2][4] She was also friends with composer Ethel Smyth.[3]
From 1906 she was friends with Toupie Lowther and her brother Claude Lowther.
On 22 August 1907, at Bad Homburg, a spa in Germany, Mabel Batten met Radclyffe Hall. Batten was 51 years old and Hall was 27. In 1913 Batten and Hall visited the Lowthers at Claude's Herstmonceux Castle.[3] When Batten was a widow, she went to live with Hall in Cadogan Square.[1] Batten, nicknamed Ladye, gave the name John to Hall, which Hall used for the rest of her life.[5]
In 1915 Hall met Batten's cousin Una Troubridge (1887–1963). When Batten died the following year, Troubridge took care of a defeated Hall and in 1917 they went to live together.[6]
Batten is buried in a vault in the Circle of Lebanon on the western side of Highgate Cemetery in London, and Hall chose to be buried at the entrance of the crypt.[2]
Legacy[edit]
Mabel Batten's portraits were taken by John Singer Sargent and Edward John Poynter.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Hamer, Emily (2016). Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 94. ISBN 9781474292801. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f "Batten, Mabel Veronica". Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ^ a b c Brown, Val (2017). Toupie Lowther: Her life. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 57. ISBN 9781788035231. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ^ Seddon, Laura (2016). British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 9781317171348. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ^ Cline, Sally (1999). Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John. Overlook Press. pp. 58–67.
- ^ "Radclyffe Hall". A purnell. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006.
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