Agnes Mabel Shaw was born on 3 September 1898 in Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire. Through most of her life she was known as Mabel. I am using her preferred name throughout this research.
Mabel’s father, George Shaw (who was born on 16 February 1869 in Saffron Walden, Essex married Agnes Edith Bates on 23 November 1897 in Humberstone, Leicestershire and died in January 1921 in Ashton In Makerfield, Lancashire, at the age of 51). Mabel’s mother was Agnes Edith Bates (born March 1870 Blaxhall, Suffolk, England and died 26 August 1943 at ‘The Dial House’, Mottram-in-Longendale, Cheshire). Mabel had one brother and one sister. She died on 14 January 1991 in Zeals, Wiltshire, at the age of 92.
Mabel Shaw (1898-1991) was born in the Cambridge village of Fen Drayton. Mabel had a fascinating life, she was a talented musician and after the First World War secured a job as a music and elocution teacher at Manchester School for Girls. Whilst working there she met Jane Saunders who taught art at the school. Jane Saunders and another art teacher called Hannah Ritchie lived together in Manchester during the mid-1920s. They were close friends of the famous artist Frances Hodgkins. At the time Hodgkins was a struggling and was given lodgings and financial help by Saunders and Ritchie (who appear together as the subjects of one of Hodgkins’ most famous paintings).
Frances Hodgkins and Jane Saunders are known to have had a relationship, which had ended by 1929 when Saunders began a new relationship with Mabel Shaw. Eventually Saunders and Shaw left Manchester to settle down together in Wiltshire. Mabel subsequently worked as a freelance teacher of music and elocution at numerous other schools.
Jane Saunders and Mabel Shaw lived happily together for the rest of their lives. They accumulated a significant collection of paintings by Frances Hodgkins, including several of her best known works that are now hanging in major galleries around the world, such as the Tate.
In 2013 I acquired, though an online auction website, a substantial and fascinating archive relating to Mabel. Images and documents from the collection are currently being digitised and will appear here soon
The Mabel’s family history is here.
