Mabel Quiller-Couch Reflects on WW1’s Early Days by Julie Grigg
A very scarce picture of Mabel Quiller-Couch and her sister Lilian Hay Lobban (c1912)
We are delighted to be adding a new article to the Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch section of the Daphne du Maurier website today. Julia Spry-Leverton, who writes under the name Julia Grigg, has sent us a fascinating extract from some of her longer writing, focusing on Mabel Quiller-Couch, sister of Sir Arthur, who we often refer to as Q.
The Quiller-Couch family consisted of their father, who was a doctor in Bodmin, their mother, described as charming but feckless, particularly once she had become a widow, Arthur, Mabel, Lilian and two much younger brothers. Once their father had died, Arthur became financially responsible for the whole family. Mabel was two years younger than Arthur and remained single throughout her life. Their sister Lilian married John Hay Lobban. Mabel, Lilian and John made their homes in Hampstead, and both women built writing careers, becoming financially independent. On a number of occasions, they wrote together; for example, their first book, Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall (1894), was a collaboration, but they mainly led separate writing careers. Arthur, as we know, settled in Fowey with his wife Louisa and their children Bevil and Foy.
The piece that Julia is sharing with us today is offered as a tribute to Mabel Quiller-Couch as we remember the one-hundredth anniversary of her death on 27th November 1924. It is an imagining of Mabel at The Haven with Arthur in the very early days of WW1.
For the background to Julia’s piece - Mabel Quiller-Couch Reflects on WW1’s Early Days, and for the full extract, please click herehttps://www.dumaurier.org/menu_page.php?id=244