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Phyllis Gardner (British writer)

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This article is about the British writer. 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

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Gardner spent some of her early childhood in Athens, where her father, Ernest Arthur Gardner, was Director of the British School of Archaeology.[3] Her aunt Alice Gardner was a historian (of 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 Saint Felix School in Southwold, Suffolk between 1907-1908. In 1908, Gardner enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art and specialised in the craft of wood carving, but also had a fondness for drawing and painting animals. She exhibited a screen and wood carvings at the Arts and Crafts Society Eleventh Exhibition in 1916.[5][6][7] In later years Phyllis and Delphis carved intricate chess sets, one of which forms part of the 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 British Library in 1948 and closed to access for 50 years.[12] Due to this lengthy closure, and the secretive way Brooke referred to Gardner in his letters, the importance of their relationship was not acknowledged in 20th century biographies of Brooke, in which Gardner hardly gets a mention at all. According to a 2015 biography, Brooke's letters to Gardner depict a cruel side which his 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 Irish Wolfhounds and opened a kennel called Coolafin in 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

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  1. ^ "Phyllis Gardner Headstone Appeal". The Rupert Brooke Society. Archived from the original on 15 October 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  2. ^ McCrum, Robert (28 March 2015). "Secret memoir uncovers the real life and loves of doomed war poet Rupert Brooke". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b Beckett, Lorna C. (2015). The Second I Saw You: The True Love Story of Rupert Brooke and Phyllis Gardner. London: British Library. ISBN 978-0-7123-5792-0. OCLC 891615997.
  4. ^ Sutherland, Gillian (23 September 2004). "Gardner, Alice (1854–1927)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48491. Retrieved 21 February 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ "Phyllis Gardner". 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. ^ a b Paul, Delany (2015). Fatal Glamour: The Life of Rupert Brooke. Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773582781. 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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