Articles, records and resources relating to the history of the city of Preston
Patti Mayor (1872-1962) – artist and suffragette
The Preston artist and suffragette Patti Mayor painted the famous portrait of a young Preston mill girl, which was carried in a suffragette procession in London in 1908.
Primary sources
Patti was baptised Martha Anne Mayor, at Lune Street Methodist Chapel, Preston, on 29 May 1872. Her parents, Daniel and Sarah, were living at 28 Great Avenham Street. [1] By the time of the 1881 census, they had moved to 5, Chaddock Street. In the census return her father is described as a rope and sack maker employing two men and four boys. The household included Patti, her four siblings and a servant. [2]
By the time of the next census in 1891, Patti, then aged 18, and described as music student, was still living at home with her parents, but the family had by then moved to 5, Grosvenor Place, Ashton. [3] At the next census in 1901, Patti was now described as a self-employed artist and sculptor, her sister Sarah as a singing teacher and sister Amy as a piano teacher. [4] At the 1911 census, the family address was given as Holme Croft, 5 Grosvenor Place. Patti was living with her parents and her sister Amy. Mr Mayor had by then retired, Patti, aged 38, was described as an artist with her own studio and Amy was teaching music at home and at the Park School. Their house had eight main rooms. [5]
Patti established an artists’ partnership with a Miss Frances M. Bentham. They advertised an exhibition in the Lancashire Daily Post in 1903 of oil and water colour paintings at their studio at 26, Fishergate (entrance Woodcock’s Court). They were listed in trade directory in 1913/14, but not in the next one that appeared in 1917, nor in later directories. [6]
In the 1920s the family seemed to have moved next door to Number 7, to judge by a trade directory entry. [7] In the next directory for the town published in 1936, by which time Daniel Mayor had died, the household head is given as A. Mayor. If this is Patti’s younger sister Amy, then possibly Patti was not living there at that period. [8] In fact, it quite likely that she had moved to London at that date, for she is clearly the ‘Pattie Mayor’, born 1 May 1872 and working as a portrait artist, who was living at 14 Terrapin Road in Wandsworth in 1939. [9]
By 1948, the Barrett directory has both sisters living in Grosvenor Place, and Patti would be the Miss P. Mayor at the address. [10] They were both listed there in 1952. [11]
She died 15 December 1962 aged 90. She was then living at 7 Grosvenor Place [12]
Patti is now best remembered for her painting ‘The Half-Timer’, dated 1906-1908, which was carried on a suffragette march in London. [13] A fellow Preston suffragette, Grace Alderman, mentions Patti in a letter in which she wrote:
‘The [Preston] Branch Members all understood that Patty Mayor had given that painting of the Half Timer which was mounted as a Banner by one of her brothers, and carried by Preston W.S.P.U. members in one of those big rallies in Hyde Park when Processions started from seven parts of London and converged on Hyde Park where there were 7 Platforms and 7 Speakers.
‘Patty Mayor said she was shewing her painting to a professional buyer and he gave her £80 for it – The Half Timer who sat for the Portrait was grown up and married then.’ [14]
Joseph Garstang after the wat. Source: Ann Berry’s article
Patti was a close friend of Joseph Garstang, the Preston pacifist and conscientious objector jailed during World War 1. Ann Berry, Joe’s great-niece, has written a short biography, ‘Joseph Garstang: the Absolutist’. Ann’s family were friends with Patti and her sister, Amy, and Patti had painted portraits of some of her relatives:
‘My father and his cousin had in their possession four paintings by Patti Mayor: two of Uncle Joe, one of our grandfather, David, and one of their sister, Polly … My aunt informed us that our family had been friends with the painter and her sister and that Uncle Joe and Patti had been sweethearts.’
Joe died in 1928, aged 38, his health broken by his incarceration during the war. Like many suffragettes, he went on hunger strike while imprisoned and was force fed. [15]
Secondary Sources
There is a scattering of information about Patti in various short publications in the last few years. Only two give sources: one is to ‘Artists in Britain Since 1945′ by David Buckman (none of the local libraries has a copy) [16], and the other is a personal communication from one of her relatives.
The 150th anniversary of Patti’s birth was marked by an exhibition at Gallery Oldham in 2022, and an article was posted on the ArtUK website, written by Eleanor Ghebache and Emily Moore. They spoke to Dominic Bull, a relative of Patti, who provided a lot of extra family information. This included the fact that the family rope and sacking business continued until fairly recently.
The article includes the following information on Patti’s famous portrait of the young Preston mill worker Annie Hill:
‘In 1908, Patti carried a banner showing her painting The Half-Timer when she led the Preston branch of the WSPU on a London march. The image was chosen to represent working women: the title references children who ‘halved’ their time between working and getting an education.’ [17]
A UCLan post to mark International Women’s Day in 2017 has the following about Annie:
‘In 1906 Patti painted her famous painting, The Half-Timer. It depicted a twelve year old girl called Annie Hill, who had just started working in the Horrockses Stanley Street Yard Works in Preston. The title refers to the fact that children split their time between working part-time in the mill and receiving an education. Annie would go to work for half the day and then to school for a few hours. Her work in the mill would have been extremely hard and in later life left her partly deaf.’ [18]
The ARTUK site carries information on Patti taken from David Buckman’s book. This has her educated at Slade School of Fine Art and in Paris and says she was a Christian Scientist. [19]
Keith Johnson supplied the following information in an article in the Lancashire Post:
‘… she was a notable dancer in her younger days, a talented musician and a painter who developed her skills in the art circles of France. During the war years she fund raised for refugees and the Red Cross and held exhibitions of her portraits, landscapes and flowers at her Grosvenor Place, Ashton home to raise cash.’ [20]
