Mary Olive
Edis was born on 3rd September 1876 in Marylebone, London in
1876. Her father was a professor of
Gynaecology at University College Hospital.
Olive and
her sister set up photographic studios in Sheringham in Norfolk, Farnham in
Surrey and in Ladbroke Grove, London.
By 1912 she was working on colour photography.
During the
First World War, Olive was an official war photographer. She was commissioned
by the Imperial War Museum at the end of the war to travel to the Western Front
to take photographs of the work being done there by British women.
In 1928 in
Paddington, Olive married Edwin Henry Galsworthy, a cousin of the poet/writer
John Glasworthy. She died on 28th
December 1955.
Olive’s
photographic studio in Sheringham was in South Street. Copies of her work are held in the Museum at
Sheringham.
The Imperial
War Museum has put some of Olive’s photographs on-line for us all to see http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/we-sent-a-photographer-to-1919-france-here-are-her-photos
Sources: Find my Past, Free BMD, Wikipedia
