A. M. W. Stirling

Anna Marie Diana Wilhelmina Stirling (née Pickering; 26 August 1865 – 11 August 1965), also known as Wilhelmina Stirling and under the alias Percival Pickering, was a British writer and art collector. A greater part of her books dealt with the lives and reminiscences of the British landed gentry of Yorkshire. She was the founder of the De Morgan Centre for the Study of 19th Century Art and Society.

Biography

Stirling (then Pickering) was born to Anna Marie Wilhelmina Spencer Stanhope (1824–1901) and the lawyer and cricketer Percival Pickering (1810–1876). Her mother was a granddaughter of Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. Stirling's parents married in 1853. Wilhelmina was the youngest child – she had three older siblings: the painter Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, Percival Spencer Umfreville Pickering (1858–1920) and Rowland Neville Umfreville (1861–1931). The painter John Roddam Spencer Stanhope was her maternal uncle. The Pickering siblings had a special relationship with their nanny which lasted until her death: Jane Hales was portrayed by Evelyn de Morgan as early as 1866, and later lived with Wilhelmina Stirling until her death in 1925, since she had never married herself.

Wilhelmina Pickering married Charles Goodbarne Stirling (1866–1948) in 1901 and they moved into Launceston Place. As a wedding present, the couple received a bowl with a leopard and deer motif from Wihelmina's brother-in-law, the ceramic artist and author William De Morgan, which is now on display in the De Morgan Museum.

Stirling was a humanist, and a Life Member of the Rationalist Press Association. She was described in ''The Humanist'' in 1963 as the RPA's 'oldest supporter'.

Wilhelmina Stirling died only 15 days before her 100th birthday in 1965 in Germany.

Works

Stirling wrote her first novel as a child, ''The Adventures of Prince Almero: A Tale of the Wind-Spirit'', for the entertainment of her cousins. After a revision it was later published in 1890. In honor of her father she wrote her first works under the male alias ''Percival Pickering''. Stirling was only 25 years old at the time. Her novel ''A life Awry'' was published in 1893 and performed as a play in 1899. Her writing was not all fictional, a greater part of her publications dealt with the English landed gentry, her mother's ancestors, and artists she knew, including her sister Evelyn and brother-in-law William De Morgan. She is considered the author of more than 30 novels and historical reports. Her writings are a uniquely valuable if sometimes questionable source of biographical information.

Art collection

In 1931, Wilhelmina and her husband Charles G. Stirling rented the building on the site of St. John's Estate in Battersea (now Battersea Village) and renamed it Old Battersea House. Since the couple saved the building from demolition, they received a lifelong lease for a nominal rent. Wilhelmina and Charles Stirling were both avid art and antique collectors, and in later years made a name for themselves for their entertaining tours of the Old Battersea House. Wilhelmina in particular documented the joint collection.

She made her art collection with works by her sister Evelyn De Morgan and her husband, William De Morgan, open to the public under the name ''De Morgan Center for the Study of 19th Century Art and Society'' in her later years. Apart from their works she collected paintings by other Victorian era artists such as William Holman Hunt and John William Waterhouse and had a sizeable collection of furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries. After Wilhelmina Stirling's death, the Old Battersea House fell into disrepair. The collection is administered by the De Morgan Foundation in West Hill.

Film director Ken Russell met her in 1961 and immortalized her at the age of 96 in the short film ''Old Battersea House'' for the BBC
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