Born in Hornsby, Lancashire, she attended St George’s School for Girls, Edinburgh, later studying art in Edinburgh, Rome and Paris, where she was taught by the leading animalier, Edouard Nevallier. After graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 1918, she contributed animal sculptures to various major architectural schemes, most notably the Scottish National War Memorial, Edinburgh, later embarking on a successful independent career as a specialist in animal statuettes, mostly in bronze. She was the first female member of the Royal Scottish Academy, and died in Kirkcudbright, where she spent the last twenty-three years of her life.
Bibliography: P.J.M. McEwan, The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Ballater, Aberdeenshire, 2004; R. McKenzie, Public Sculpture of Edinburgh (2 vols), Liverpool, 2018, vol. 1, pp. 106–08, 257, 413–14, vol. 2, pp. 380–81, 474.
Ray McKenzie 2018