Person    | Female  Born 23/12/1919  Died 28/3/2016

Peggy Fortnum

Categories: Art

Illustrator. Born in Harrow, Margaret Fortnum has illustrated about 80 children's books, most famously the Paddington series from the beginning to 1974.

Andrew Behan has researched Fortnum: Margaret Emily Noel Fortnum, (known as Peggy Fortnum), was born on 23 December 1919 in Harrow, Middlesex, the youngest of the six children of Lieutenant Commander Arthur John Fortnum R.N.R. and Mary Georgina Fortnum, née Hay. Her father was an Advertising Manager for the Lemco & Oxo Company. Electoral registers from 1919 to 1922 show the family living at 11 Hamilton Road, Harrow, but from 1923 the family resided at 6 Marlborough Hill, Harrow. Educated at St Margaret's School, Harrow, in 1939 she enrolled in the Tunbridge Wells School of Art. 1940 saw her join the Auxiliary Territorial Service but she was injured when she fell through a broken door of a troop carrier and her leg was run over by a lorry. The army admitted liability and gave her a grant which enabled her to enrol at the Central School of Art in London.

Electoral registers in 1945 and 1946 show her living at 2a Downshire Hill, Hampstead, but the register of 1948 shows her living at 19 Parliament Hill, Hampstead and those from 1949 record that she was at 15 Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead. The 1956 and 1957 registers record her at 15 Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead along with five other voters including a Ralph N. Nuttall-Smith (but not including his wife). In 1958 Ralph Nuttall Nuttall-Smith obtained a divorce from his wife of 21 years, Katherina Barbara Maria Nuttall-Smith née Comes and later that year he and Peggy Fortnum were married in Hampstead. The 1959 electoral registers shows them continuing to live at 15 Lyndhurst Road but then moving to 21 Willow Road, Hampstead where they remained until at least 1965.

They moved to Essex and at the time of her husband's death on 10 January 1988 they were living at 67 Churchfields, West Mersea, Colchester, Essex, CO5 8QN. Electoral registers from 2004 to 2008 confirm that she was living at Flat 10, Hall Barn, High Street, West Mersea, Colchester, CO5 8SD. She died, aged 96 years, on 28 March 2016.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Peggy Fortnum

Commemorated ati

Paddington Bear statue - Paddington Station, gone

{The statue has two integral texts: On a label stuck to the suitcase:} Wanted...

Read More

Paddington Bear - statue, platform 1

Since arriving at Paddington Station from Peru this bear's journeys have not ...

Read More

Other Subjects

Sutton twin towns mural

Sutton twin towns mural

Created by Gary Drostle and Rob Turner to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sutton's twinning with Wilmersdorf, Berlin. It comprises seven panels showing scenes of Sutton and its four European tw...

Place, Art, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy

1 memorial
Norah Lyle-Smyth, Norah Smyth

Norah Lyle-Smyth, Norah Smyth

Painter, sculptor, photographer and suffragette. Born Norah Veronica Lyle-Smyth in Cheshire. She was befriended by Sylvia Pankhurst and accompanied her on a speaking tour around Europe. She finance...

Person, Art, Gender Issues, Photography, Politics & Administration, Sculpture, Ireland

2 memorials
Felix Slade

Felix Slade

Collector of glass, books and engravings funded from the wealth he inherited from his father. Member of the Society of Antiquaries, he endowed 3 Slade Professorships of Fine Art at universities, an...

Person, Art, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Frederic James Shields

Frederic James Shields

Born Hartlepool. Painter. He met and became friends with Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1864, who along with John Ruskin gave him practical help in his work. From 1865 to 1867 he collaborated on a gro...

Person, Art

1 memorial
Robert Seymour

Robert Seymour

Illustrator.  Born Somerset.  In November 1835 Seymour, a successful illustrator, aged 38, known for comic sporting prints suggested to the publishers Chapman and Hall a project, a series of illust...

Person, Art, Tragedy

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Henry Truman
War dead, WW1
1 memorial