Lady Ethel Alice Chivers Harris
Other names: Miss Ethel Bower (pre-1908), Lady Harris (from 1917)
Born 1867
Died 12 February 1933
Active: 1899 - 1928
Country of birth and death: England
Medallist, sculptor
Born in Wadsworth, Yorkshire. She was a daughter of Edward Chivers Bower JP (1827-96) of Broxholme, Scarborough, Yorkshire. It is probable, based on the subject of certain portrait medals and her collaboration with Margaret Giles, that she studied at the National Art Training School (Royal College of Art) in the 1890s. Certainly after the death of her father in 1896 she moved to London and began exhibiting sculpture (as Ethel Bower). For some of this time, she lived with her brother George Chivers Bower (born c.1861), a barrister.
In 1908 she married the barrister Henry Percy Harris who may have been a friend or colleague of Ethel's brother. Henry Harris served on the London County Council (and was later its leader), he was also Chairman of the Select Committee on War Pensions in 1920 and a Justice of the Peace. Ethel shared her husband's interest in public works and served for 18 years as chairman of the Paddington School for Mothers. At the same time she continued to practice as an artist, first as Ethel A.C. Harris and then as Lady Harris (her husband was knighted in 1917). She worked principally as a medallist exhibiting over seventy portrait medals or medallions at the Royal Academy between 1901-22.
Her death took place in tragic circumstances. In 1932 Lady Harris was very ill, she caught pneumonia and influenza whilst also being treated for diabetes. A year later she died in an accident on the tube. At the inquest the coroner recorded a verdict of 'suicide while of unsound mind' based on evidence that the strong medication she was taking for her diabetes was having an adverse effect on her mental health.
Wealth at death: £3,353 14s. 8d.
Probate date: 28 March 1933
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
The constellatons, 'Perseus, Andromeda, and Orion'
1899 (Presumed)
Locations
Address Broxholme Scarborough | View on map
1891 (Circa)
This was the family estate
Address 14 Warwick Square London | View on map
1901 (Circa) - 1904 (Circa)
Address 32 Halsey Street Lennox Gardens London | View on map
1903 (Circa) - 1905 (Circa)
Address 13 St George's Road London SW | View on map
1906 (Circa)
Address 14 Upper Cheyne Row Chelsea London SW | View on map
1907 (Circa) - 1908 (Circa)
Address 98 Gloucester Terrace Paddington London | View on map
1909 - 1933
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1901 - 1922
Exhibited 21 times (7 of these under her maiden name of Ethel Bower), she showed more than seventy-two portrait medals or medallions (some are given as un-numbered groups under one catalogue number so the exact total is higher).
Descriptions of Practice
Listed as medallist Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume VII, 1923 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Listed as a contemporary sculptor and medallist. Exhibited portrait medals at the Royal Academy in 1918. See vol. 7, (1923), p. 419.
Listed under Sculptors Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume VII, 1923 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Listed as a contemporary sculptor and modeller. Forrer notes that the artist exhibited medallic works at the Royal Academy, London, in 1909, 1911, 1912, 1914 and 1915. See vol. 7, (1923), p. 419.
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891
None
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
'Living on own means'
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
'Sculptor'
Sources
Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the Sixth Exhibition.
1899
p.38.
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891
2004
RG12 piece 3966 folio 102 page 10
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
2001
RG13 piece 87 folio 61 page 8
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
2009
RG14PN73 RG78PN3 RD1 SD3 ED5 SN93
England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915
2006
Name: Ethel Alice C Bower
Date of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec 1867
Registration district: Doncaster
Inferred County: Yorkshire West Riding
Volume: 9c
Page: 525
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966
2010
Name: Ethel Alice Chivers Harris
Probate Date: 28 Mar 1933
Death Date: 12 Feb 1933
Death Place: Middlesex, England
Registry: London, England
The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985
2008
Lady Harris Killed.
The Times (London, England), Monday, Feb 13, 1933; pg. 12; Issue 46367. (149 words)
Category: News AND Death In The Tube.
The Times (London, England), Wednesday, Feb 15, 1933; pg. 17; Issue 46369. (404 words)
Who was Who
December 2007
HARRIS, Sir Henry Percy’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U226498, accessed 16 Oct 2012]
Citing this record
'Lady Ethel Alice Chivers Harris', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1240847220, accessed 21 Mar 2023]
