Lorna Cecilia Garman Wishart (11 January 1911 – 12 January 2000) was the youngest of the nine children of Walter Garman, an eccentric medical doctor, and his wife Margaret. Lorna, her six sisters and her two brothers grew up at Oakeswell Hall,

Wednesbury Wednesbury () is a market town in Sandwell in the county of West Midlands, England. It is located near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire in the Hundred of Offlow, at the 2011 Census the town had a population of 3 ...

, and then became prominent in the

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

Bloomsbury set The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Stra ...

in London between the two world wars. Lorna in particular had affairs with the poet Laurie Lee and the painter

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

. Her character may be summed up in this quotation from Cressida Connolly:

Lorna, the baby of the family, was perhaps the most flamboyant of the fabulous Garmans. She wore beautiful and unusual clothes, and smelled of
Chanel No. 5 Chanel No. 5 was the first perfume launched by French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1921. The scent formula for the fragrance was compounded by French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux. The design of its bottle has been an impo ...
, went riding on her horse at night, drove a chocolate-brown Bentley, and would strip naked to swim in inviting lakes or rivers or 10-metre waves. At 14 she seduced the man who would become her husband when she was 16, the publisher Ernest Wishart.

Ernest Wishart founded the publisher Wishart & Co., which soon became

Lawrence and Wishart Lawrence & Wishart is a British publishing company formerly associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain. It was formed in 1936, through the merger of Martin Lawrence, the Communist Party's press, and Wishart Ltd, a family-owned Left-wing ...

, which became the publishing house of the Communist Party of Great Britain, in collaboration with Douglas Garman, the party's Education Secretary. Throughout her marriage to him Lorna had several affairs. With Wishart, she had a son, Michael, who became a painter, and with Laurie Lee a daughter, Yasmin, in February 1939. She modelled for several pictures by Lucian Freud during her affair with him. She also brought him objects such as a dead heron and a zebra head for him to insert in his paintings. Both Lee and Freud went on to marry nieces of Lorna's, respectively Kathy Polge and Kitty Garman. Lorna Wishart died on 12 January 2000.

References

The Rare and the Beautiful: The Lives of the Garmans by Cressida Connolly, Fourth Estate
Family Profile, book review and photographic images of Mary, Lorna and Kathleen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garman, Lorna English socialites People from Wednesbury 1911 births 2000 deaths Place of birth missing Place of death missing Lorna Garman

See also

References