Ursula Frances Elinor Mommens (née Darwin, formerly Trevelyan; 20 August 1908 – 30 January 2010) was an English

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US * Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska * Potters, New Je ...

. Mommens studied at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, under William Staite Murray, and later worked with

Michael Cardew Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years. Early life Cardew was born in Wimbledon, London, the fourth child of Arthur Cardew, a civil servant, and Alexandra Kitchin, the elde ...

Winchcombe Pottery Winchcombe Pottery, near Winchcombe in Tewkesbury Borough, North Gloucestershire, is an England, English craft pottery founded in 1926. Early history There has been a pottery, with a Bottle oven, Bottle kiln, on the current site in Greet since ...

and

Wenford Bridge Pottery Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years. Early life Cardew was born in Wimbledon, London, the fourth child of Arthur Cardew, a civil servant, and Alexandra Kitchin, the eld ...

. She was the daughter of

Bernard Darwin Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Biography ...

and his wife the engraver

Elinor Monsell Elinor Mary Darwin (née Monsell; 1879–1954) was an Irish born illustrator, engraver and portrait painter. Her illustrations were included in several of her husband, Bernard Darwin's books for children. Personal life Elinor Mary Monsell was ...

. Her brother was Sir

Robert Vere Darwin Sir Robert Vere "Robin" Darwin Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE Member of the Royal Academy, RA Member of the Royal Society of Arts, RSA President of the Royal Society of Painters in ...

. She was the great-granddaughter of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

and the great-great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. She married first Julian Trevelyan; their son is the film-maker

Philip Trevelyan Philip Erasmus Trevelyan (born 22 August 1943) is a British organic hill farmer, entrepreneur and former film and television director, most noted for the 1971 documentary film ''The Moon and the Sledgehammer''. Early life He is the son of the art ...

. Her second husband was

Norman Mommens Norman Mommens (31 May 1922 – 8 February 2000) was a Belgian sculptor. Born in Antwerp, his father was Flemish and his mother was English. He studied mural painting at Elkerlyc, the High School for Architecture and the Visual Arts, in Amster ...

. Mommens lived and worked in South Heighton,

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

, making both wood and gas-fired functional stoneware using a clay body she developed herself with ash glazes. She lived to the age of 101.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mommens, Ursula Frances 1908 births 2010 deaths 20th-century English women artists 21st-century English women artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from London British potters British women ceramicists Darwin–Wedgwood family English centenarians People from Lewes District Women centenarians Women potters