Outstanding Stratford artist was a leading light at St Andrew’s Church, Shottery

MARY Holmes will be fondly remembered by her extensive family and many in both Shottery

and the wider Stratford area as a leading light in the life of St Andrew’s Church and amongst

the artists of the town.

Her life in Shottery became increasingly difficult with advancing Alzheimer’s and she moved to the wonderful Methodist Care Home, Norwood, in Ipswich around nine years ago. She passed away there on the 26th of September, totally dependent

on the amazing care they gave her.

Mary was born in South London in Norbury, elder daughter of Scott-Russell and Edith Trick.

He was a local London GP and Edith a nurse, but the war came whilst Mary and her sister

Margaret were both children. Edith and the two girls moved back to Stratford where her

grandparents, the Gibbs family, ran a bakery.

She was educated at Clarendon School in Malvern with her sister and later joined by their

mother who was appointed school matron. Towards the end of the war time, the school

relocated to Kinver Hall outside Abergele in North Wales, where she completed her

Schooling.

Following his war service as an army medic, and with the practice in London

destroyed in the Blitz, her father Scott was demobbed to Stratford where the family settled

permanently in Rowley Crescent.

Her artistic flare was rewarded with a place at the Birmingham School of Art where she

flourished and went on to study at the Royal Academy in London, where her paintings were

exhibited in a student competition in 1954.

Whilst travelling regularly to and from Birmingham on the train, she met her future

husband, Frank. It is said that they held hands surreptitiously under his newspaper! They

married in 1954 and moved to a cottage by the canal aqueduct in Wootton Wawen where

the three boys, Paul, Peter and Nicholas created a close family.

As the family outgrew the cottage, they moved to Shottery where their fourth child, Elisabeth, known by the family as Biddy, completed the brood.

Mary was initially busy raising them all, but quickly became involved with St Andrew’s

Church where the family became active members of the congregation. She was Church

Warden for many years and was very active in the group that later extended the church to

become the building it is today – her artistic skills came to the fore as she designed the

colour scheme for the interior.

A desire to return to her artistic career resulted in her appointment to the Stratford College

of Further Education in the adult education department. She taught a broad spectrum of

painting classes over the years, including watercolour, landscape, portraits, oils and for a

while sculpting in clay.

There will be many in the town who will recall those classes held

both at the Willows Campus and also in Shottery Memorial Hall, the library and out on the

river bank in Luddington. She was an outstanding artist and regularly exhibited at the

Stratford Art Society exhibitions as a member.

Family holidays initially centred on a cottage in North Wales, inaccessible by road. The

family would carry all the luggage and then the shopping around a mile up Moel-y-Gest, the

mountain outside Porthmadog.

Later the trips switched to central Devon where a big farmhouse could accommodate the expanding family. Holidays abroad only came later in life, with a trip with her sister to New Zealand and a pilgrimage to the Holy Land being highlights.

Once the family started to depart for university and careers, Mary and Frank opened their

house to overseas students as lodgers and enjoyed taking many young students under their

wing.

Sadly, she lost Frank in 1989 after just 35 years of marriage and was to live another 35 years on her own.

This did not stop her inexhaustible love of her house, her beloved garden, her

church family and her career in teaching. Her house was often opened for church garden

parties and big family gatherings.

Following the move to Ipswich, Mary soon found a place in the art classes there and made

friends rapidly with the other residents at the home. The care she received was wonderful

and progressed eventually to total nursing care.

She is survived by her four children, ten grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. She

will be sadly missed by all