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 succesful 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 childrens 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.

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).