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

, under

William Staite Murray William Staite Murray (1881–1962) was an English studio potter. Biography He was born in Deptford, London and attended pottery classes at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1909 - 1912. He worked with Cuthbert Hamilton, a member of the ...

, 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 ...

at Winchcombe Pottery and Wenford Bridge Pottery. She was the daughter of Bernard Darwin and his wife the engraver Elinor Monsell. 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 ...

and the great-great-granddaughter of the potter

Josiah Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indus ...

. She married first

Julian Trevelyan Julian Otto Trevelyan (20 February 1910 – 12 July 1988) was an English artist and poet. Early life Trevelyan was the only child to survive to adulthood of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and his wife Elizabeth van der Hoeven. His grandfather wa ...

; 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 ar ...

. Her second husband was Norman Mommens. Mommens lived and worked in

South Heighton South Heighton is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is seven miles (12 km) south of Lewes. In the 1890s the village's population grew from less than 100 to over 500 after a cement manu ...

, East Sussex, making both wood and gas-fired functional

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...

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