Margaret Rose Preston (29 April 1875 – 28 May 1963) - Australian artist and printmaker - Occupational Therapy Teacher WW1

With grateful thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron for bringing Margaret and her work to my attention

Margaret Rose Preston 

Margaret Rose Preston was born on 29th April 1875 in Port Adelaide, Australia.   Her parents were David McPherson, a Scottish marine engineer, and his wife Prudence McPherson. Margaret was the first-born child;  her sister Ethelwynne was born in 1877.

In 1885, the family moved to Sydney and Margaret was educated at Fort Street Girls' High School.  She demonstrated an early aptitude for art, first with china painting. Margaret took private art classes with William Lister Lister, an Australian artist and seven times winner of the Wynne Prize for landscape art.

In 1899, Margaret set up her own studio and later taught at St Peter's College and at Presbyterian Ladies' College in Adelaide.

After the death of her mother, Margaret travelled to France in 1912 with Gladys Reynell (1881–1956), one of South Australia's earliest potters. When war was declared in August 1914, Margaret and Gladys moved to  Britain.  Margaret studied pottery and the principles of Modernist design at Roger Fry's Omega Workshops. Later, she and Gladys taught pottery and basket-weaving as therapy for shell-shocked soldiers at the Seale Hayne Military Hospital in Devonshire. During that time, Margaret exhibited her work in both London and Paris during this period.

Example of Margaret's artwork

In 1919, Margaret travelled to America for an exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On her way back to Australia, she met her future husband, William George "Bill" Preston, a recently demobilised Second Lieutenant of the Australian Imperial Force. They were married on 31st December 1919 and settled in Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.

Margaret died on 28th May 1963.

Source:  Wikipedia