Item HCO/1/4/2/1 - Begonia

Extent: 1 folder

Folder, entitled 'Begonia' containing four paintings of begonias: 1. Small watercolour of a single red begonia flower, white centre, on white card glued onto brown card (9.5 x7.8 cm), inscribed in pencil '36/21, Sep 1921', signed 'HCO'. 2. Small watercolour of a two single begonia flowers (red, pink, yellow centres, on white card (10.9 x 7.9 cm), inscribed in pencil '64/19, Sep 1919. 3. Watercolour of two begonia sprigs, showing flowers, leaves and buds, pink double and red with yellow centres, on white card (26.3 x 17.8 cm), inscribed in pencil '68/19, Sep 6th 1919', signed 'HCO' by each flower. 4. Not Osterstock: watercolour [?] on white card (28.9 x 23.3 cm) of two begonia sprigs, orange red, inscribed '404/6' and signed 'C B B', possibly Caroline Beatrice Bateson (wife of William Bateson). Tissue paper covering has 'W Bateson's wife' in pencil, crossed out. No date, c 1919-21.

Admin History: Bateson, Caroline Beatrice, 1870-1941 (née Durham, wife of William Bateson) (Caroline) Beatrice Durham was the daughter of a senior surgeon at Guy's Hospital, Arthur Edward Durham (1834–1895). She met William Bareson in 1889 Bateson met. Their subsequent engagement was broken off and all correspondence intercepted due to disapproval of Bateson by Beatrice's mother. Seven years later, Beatrice's parents having died, they renewed their acquaintance and in 1896 they married. Of their three sons John was killed in the First World War in 1918, Martin committed suicide in 1922, but Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) had a distinguished career in social anthropology and psychology. Beatrice was devoted to her husband and until 1903 she performed most of the menial tasks associated with her husband's experiments. After his death she gathered together his correspondence and published extracts in her 160-page memoir alongside a collection of his public lectures in 'William Bateson, F.R.S., Naturalist: his Essays and Addresses' (1928). https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/agents/people/13933