Grave No.16 - The Courtauld Grave

During the research for this publication it has been surprising the links that

have come to light with those interred with the famous. The following article

by Alf Beeching is a good example.

‘Elizabeth and Samuel Courtauld’ - Whilst browsing through the archive of

the Isle of Thanet Gazette recently, being engaged in research for the

magazine*, my eye was caught by a small paragraph in the news columns for

January 1932. The article recorded a private funeral which had a short while

previously taken place at Margate Cemetery , but it was the name of the lady

who had been interred which caught my eye – Elizabeth Courtauld. 

Now, the Courtauld family has a very special place in the industrial history of this

country and an equally illustrious one in the world of culture, being great

patrons of the worlds of art and music. The Courtauld family were descended

from Huguenots who arrived in this country towards the end of the 17th

century. Originally to be found making their living as silversmiths in London,

one member of the family, Samuel, set-up a silk manufacturing business

around 1816. The business prospered, making a huge amount of money out of

the funeral business by servicing the demand for the black silk and silk crepe

so beloved by the Victorians, who turned mourning into its own art form. But

times changed and early in the 20th century the company diversified to

become pioneers in the manufacture of the new artificial textile, Rayon. 

This astute move saw the company soar to new heights, as did the family fortune.

Samuel Courtauld was born in 1874 and after education at Rugby , was sent

abroad to study the production of textiles. On the 20th June, 1901, he married

Elizabeth Theresa Frances Kelsey, born 1875, only daughter of Edward Lewis

Kelsey, of Regent Street , London. 

Elizabeth was well known in music circles and had been a generous benefactress to several orchestras and the couple’s honeymoon in Florence awakened in Samuel a deep interest in art. 

Together, the couple immersed themselves in enriching the cultural assets of this

country. Totally impressed by a viewing of the Hugh Lane collection at the

Tate Gallery in 1917 and riveted by the works of Impressionist artists such as

Manet, Gauguin, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas etc., his collection grew with his

wealth and he also bestowed a gift of £50,000 to the Tate in 1923, a huge sum

of money then, to buy similar works of art for the nation. 

Throughout the 1920’s the couple amassed a vast collection, but in 1929 whilst on holiday in Canada , Elizabeth was taken very ill. Diagnosis proved that she was suffering from the early stages of cancer. This was a very difficult period for business too, with the Wall Street Crash and American legislation altering the face of international trade.

Elizabeth’s illness steadily worsened and she passed away on Christmas Day,

1931, at their London home, 20, Portman Square . Elizabeth had expressed a

wish to be buried at Margate Cemetery , where there were family connections

and at her funeral on the 29th December, there were only a handful of

mourners, with Samuel being joined by a few family members and friends,

including the Courtauld’s son-in-law R. A. Butler, destined to rise to high

political office in this country. 

His wife’s death had a huge impact on Samuel, who established the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London . As well as giving the institute the lease on his Portman Square House (built by Robert Adam 1774) which he and Elizabeth had bought in 1926, he also gifted them money and a large proportion of his own art collection. The Portman Square house had been the residence of the Dowager Countess of Home and to mark the memory of Elizabeth, Samuel, who had always supported young, contemporary artists, set it up as an international centre known as the Home House Society, its function being the participation by artists, art historians,

critics etc., in order to further the cause of art by their involvement. This came

to be known eventually as the Samuel Courtauld Trust, which inherited most

of the remainder of Samuel’s collection at his death.

Samuel was a passionate devotee of the principle of the civilising influence of

art and expended a lot of energy in making it accessible to the public. As such,

he was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery between 1927 and 1937, and also Trustee

of the National Gallery between 1931 and 1947. He had to battle not only

business competitors in the mid-1930’s but also his own board, whom he

accused of being complacent and failing to meet the demands imposed upon

the company by a changing world and in 1938 things came to a head when he

confronted them. But war intervened and it was not until after the hostilities

that he got his way.

In 1946 Samuel became very ill and in October he was forced to resign from

the Chairman’s seat of the board, although he remained a member. His decline

in health was steady and on December the 1st, 1947, he passed away. He was

quietly brought to Margate and laid to rest near his wife in the Kelsey family

plot, where are also the graves and memorials to her parents, Elizabeth and

Edward and her brothers, Arthur, Pryce and Edward along with other

relatives. 

The locating of the Courtaulds here, both buried quietly without fuss, was totally unexpected. How pleasing it has been to be able to put them and their graves, now cleared of vegetation, back onto the map. * Margate Historical Society

Photo of the Courtauld headstone – the family members Elizabeth and Samuel are recorded on the gravestone to the right at the rear of the grave.