Mildred Eldridge

1909 - 1991

Mildred Elsie Eldridge, known to her friends as "Elsi" studied at Wimbledon School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art where her tutors included Eric Ravilious, Gilbert Spencer, Edward Bawden and Alan Sorrell. She won the Prix de Rome travelling scholarship, which allowed her to spend time painting and sketching in Italy. On her return to London she worked with Charles Mahoney and a group of other female students from the Royal College of Art on a large set of murals at Brockley School. At this time she started exhibiting at the Royal Academy and held a successful solo exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery, Bruton Street. She then decided to move to Wales where she met and married the poet R. S. Thomas who was a clergyman in Manafon, Montgomeryshire. In Wales and the neighbouring county of Shropshire she continued to work as a muralist and also became involved in the Recording Britain project in the 1940s. The beauty of the Welsh countryside inspired her work and she developed a deep love for the rural environment around her. In the 1950s and 196s he devoted much of her time to teaching a to her carefully studied watercolours of the birds and plants she saw around her. She exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Watercolour Society, Royal Cambria Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and elsewhere. Examples of her work are held in many public collections.