Anne McEntegart (nee Patmore) was
born in Edinburgh in 1905, the youngest of four children. When Anne
was two her parents separated and her mother took the four children
to Liverpool where they lived close to Anne's maternal
grandparents.
In Anne's teens her
mother and the four children moved from Liverpool to The Brae,
Crocketford in Dumfriesshire. Anne was educated at Cheltenham
Ladies' College and studied book illustration at Edinburgh College
of Art. Before her marriage she was engaged in advertising work in
London. She also illustrated two books by her sister,
Vera.
After Anne's marriage
in 1931 to Squadron Leader Bernard McEntegart, Anne lived in Malaya
where she illustrated some English Readers for Malayan children and
a Malayan cookery book. She learnt to sculpt. Their only son was
born in 1932. After they returned to England in 1934 Anne was
committed to supporting her husband in his Royal Air Force duties
and to looking after their son.
Anne worked on a farm
in the New Forest from June 1943 to February 1945 - it was her
choice to support the War Effort. Their son had been evacuated to
Newfoundland. When Air-Vice Marshal McEntegart was invalided out of
the Royal Air Force they bought a farmhouse twelve miles from
Dumfries, near Dunscore.
After her husband's
death in 1954, then her son's tragic training accident in 1955,
Anne went to live in Paris. There she illustrated a series of
Readers. She continued to paint in oil and watercolour, worked in
pastel, and learnt to make engravings. She travelled
extensively in Europe, painting and fulfilling a number of
commercial commissions. She always came back to her home near
Dunscore and in 1965, returned there permanently. A selection of
her artwork is now in Dumfries Museum.
In 1979 Anne moved to
Appleby-in-Westmorland. She continued to paint and started
sculpting again. She died in 1984. She was a modest but committed
artist. In 1986 a Retrospective Exhibition of her work was shown at
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; The Gracefield Arts Centre,
Dumfries; and The McLaurin Art Gallery,
Ayr.
Find out more
at: http://www.themilklady.com