The Sambourne family
Edward Linley
Sambourne
Cartoonist, Illustrator, Photographer
Linley Sambourne (1844-1910) was born in Clerkenwell,
London as the only child of Edward Mott Sambourne, and his wife
Frances Linley. He had a life long passion for drawing. He
developed many styles and excelled at the grotesque and
fanciful caricature of people and animals. He began working for the
popular satirical magazine Punch in 1867 when he was just
23, and continued to contribute weekly until the year before his
death. He illustrated many books, including the 1885 edition of
Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies, and a collection of Hans
Christian Anderson’s fairy tales. He was a keen photographer and
nearly 15,000 photographs, cyanotypes and glass plate negatives
survive today as part of the Linley Sambourne archive, along with over
1,000 cartoons, drawings and sketches. Many of these are hung on
the walls at 18 Stafford Terrace.
Marion Sambourne
Wife
Mary Ann (Marion) Sambourne (1851-1914) was the eldest daughter
of the nine children of Spencer Herapath, a successful
stockbroker, and his wife Mary Ann Walker. She was brought up
in a prosperous upper middle-class household, was educated in the
accomplishment of a young lady and was a talented needlewoman and
embroiderer. Her marriage to Linley Sambourne in 1874 was not the
brilliant match her parents might have hoped for as both her
sisters married well and maintained large houses in the country.
Marion's fashion style was conventionally smart and appropriate to
her position as a middle-class Victorian wife. Her life revolved
around her family, home and social commitments. She had a good
head for money management, and controlled her own portfolio of
shares. The couple had two children Maud (born 1875) and Mawdley,
also known as Roy (born 1878).
Maud Sambourne
Daughter, later Maud Messel
Maud Frances Sambourne (1875-1960) was born at her
maternal grandparents' house, 18 Upper Phillimore Gardens,
Kensington. Maud was educated at home by her mother and
governesses. She inherited her father's talent for drawing and
her first published drawing appeared in Punch May 1892,
followed by four drawings in Pall Mall Gazette in April
1894. Maud's engagements included balls, parties, fashions,
dinners, shooting and sketching trips across both England and
Scotland. In 1898 she married Leonard Messel, a young stockbroker
and collector. The marriage lifted
Maud into wealthier upper-middle class society. They had
three children Linley (1899), Anne (1902) and Oliver
(1904).
Roy Sambourne
Son
Mawdley (Roy) Herapath Sambourne (1878-1946) was born at
his parent's house 18 Stafford Terrace and except for brief
periods of absence lived in this house all of his life. He studied
at Eton College in 1891 and later went up to University College
Oxford but did not apply himself and left in 1900 without a degree.
After working as a jobber on the Stock Exchange in the City, Roy
entered into a trading partnership with Ernest Pohl. He was never
enthusiastic about his career in the City and compensated by
pursuing a full life of pleasure. Roy was a lifelong bachelor and
maintained a warm friendship with several actresses. Following
his death in 1946 he left the house and its contents to his sister
Maud.
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Anne Messel
Granddaughter, later Countess of Rosse
Anne Messel (1902-1992) was the second child and only
daughter of Maud and Leonard Messel. Close to her younger brother
Oliver Messel, afterwards a celebrated theatrical designer, she was
educated at home by her mother and a succession of governesses.
Anne was a debutante in 1922 and became a society beauty. Three
years later she married barrister Ronald Armstrong-Jones.
They had two children, Susan (born 1927) and Antony Charles Robert
(born 1930 and later to become Lord Snowdon). After her divorce in
1935, she married Laurence Michael Harvey, the 6th Earl of Rosse
with whom she had two sons (William Clere Leonard Brendan Wilmer,
the 7th Earl of Rosse, born 1936) and Desmond Oliver Parsons (known
as the Hon Martin Parsons, born 1938).