Mary Frances Vivian Lobb (1878 – 1939) was an English

Land Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

volunteer and life companion to the English designer

May Morris Mary "May" Morris (25 March 1862 – 17 October 1938) was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. She was the younger daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris and his wife and artists' m ...

for 22 years.

Early life

Mary Francis Vivian Lobb was born in

New Malden New Malden is an area in South West London, England. It is located mainly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes ...

, Surry in 1878. Her parents were Nicholas William Lobb and Emma Vivian Lobb, and she was the second of their five children. Lobb grew up in Penerthwin and was educated at St. Thomas College in Launceston.

Personal life

Lobb was a Land Girl, or Land Army volunteer, in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1917 Lobb met May Morris, who was living at Kelmscott Manor, which had been her father William Morris' country retreat. Morris had had two relationships with men that had failed before meeting Lobb. Lobb moved in, initially serving as a gardener. Lobb and Morris would spend the rest of their lives together. Lobb was known for wearing sturdy clothes, with a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers.

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

described Lobb as a ' hermaphrodite' and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

also described Lobb in negative terms. As time passed, Lobb and Morris traveled through Europe, including visits to Iceland and

Gwbert Gwbert (), also known as Gwbert-on-Sea, is a cliff-top coastal village in Y Ferwig community, Ceredigion, Wales. It lies at the most southerly coastal point of Ceredigion, on the eastern shore of the Teifi estuary, from where there are views west ...

in Wales. May Morris died in 1938, leaving £12,000 to Mary Lobb and tenure of Kelmscott Manor, where Lobb remained until her death the following year.Following Morris' death some of the objects in Kelmscott Manor were auctioned off. Lobb donated the jewellery that Morris had left to her to

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, and gave the city of

Exeter, England Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

her Icelandic artifacts which included a drinking horn.

Death

Lobb died of heart disease in 1939. Her will stipulated she was to have no coffin, only a plain oblong box. She was cremated; her wish was for her ashes to be "scattered on a Cornish Moor preferably Bosporthennis Manor". She left her notebooks to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. In 2017, the Kelmscott Manor Museum had an exhibit centered on Lobb.

Early life

Personal life

Death

References

Further reading