Second Generation

	Marion Sambourne c1869. ©Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea: Linley Sambourne House Museum.

'The Family Archivist'

Marion Sambourne (née Herapath) married Edward Linley Sambourne, a political cartoonist for the satirical magazine Punch in 1874. The couple had two children Maud (born 1875) and Mawdley (born 1878).

Marion's social circle brought her into contact with many of the leading figures of late Victorian arts; among her close friends were the wives of prominent artists.

Marion's fashion style was conventionally smart and appropriate to her position as a middle-class Victorian wife. She did not adopt the artistic styles of dress worn by the more avant-garde women who mixed in artistic circles. Her diaries reveal that fashion was more a chore than a pleasure and she often worried about her appearance and the price of clothing. Marion was, however, a talented needlewoman and embroiderer.

Described as the family archivist, Marion kept most of the ephemera of her life and much of her own clothing.