Dearmer, Mabel

1872 – 1915
British

The British novelist and illustrator Mabel Dearmer grew up with all the advantages of the upper middle class in turn of the century London before following her heart and marrying the significantly less affluent priest Percy Dearmer in 1892. It fell to Mabel to support herself and her husband which she did through commercial illustration and dramatic writing and she was a minor member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her artistic success grew and she became a sought after poster illustrator and a contributor to such Art Nouveau publications as The Yellow Book and The Studio.

Despite being a committed Pacifist, Mabel chose to follow her husband and two sons into World War I and volunteered to help the British forces in a Serbian field hospital where she succumbed to typhoid fever and died at the age of 43.