Margaret Traherne

• Name — Margaret Traherne • Born — 23 November 1919 • Birthplace — Westcliff-on-Sea, England • Died — 30 June 2006 • Place of death — Brighton, England • Birth Name — Hazel Wilkes • Known for — Stained glass windows • Illustration — A stained glass window designed by Traherne in 1978 for Chailey Church. It is located in the North Chancel. • Illustration — Stained glass window design by Margaret Traherne.

Born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, Traherne moved with her family to Long Island, New York in 1925, aged six. She later attended Southend High School after returning from eight years spent in New York.

Traherne attended Croydon School of Art from 1936, where she studied under Ruskin Spear. It was here that she met her future husband, David Thomas, and the pair married in 1943. Traherne joined the Kingston School of Art during the Second World War, before joining the Design School at the Royal College of Art in 1945. In 1953-54 she spent a year of experimentation at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in the stained glass department run John Baker and Tom Fairs.

Margaret Traherne's designs for stained glass appear across England, including the examples below, • Fire Window, Manchester Cathedral (1966). The window was reconstructed using glass from Germany after it was destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1996. • Chapel of Reconciliation and The Lady Chapel, Liverpool Cathedral • Bapistry windows, St Peter's Church, Nottingham (1976) • Chapel of Unity, Coventry Cathedral • North chancel window, St Peter's Church, Chailey, East Sussex (1978) • St Cuthberts, Rye Park. Traherne wrote of this design, "I found St. Cuthbert a sympathetic character and one that people today will relate to. I hope that my feeling will come through the design." • Michelham Priory of Upper Dicker, Hailsham in Sussex features Traherne's earliest known glass design, a depiction of the Virgin and Child (1956). • St Kenelm window, St Peter's, Wootton Wawen (1958) • St Margaret Mary Church, Park Gate, Hampshire (1966)

A range of works by Margaret Traherne are held in public British collections, including the following, • Title — Year — Medium — Gallery no. — Gallery — Location • Cope — 1950s — wool with appliquéd embroidery, padded, silk thread — CIRC.302-1961 — Victoria and Albert Museum — London • Fret — 1956 — jacquard-woven fabric — CIRC.680-1956 — Victoria and Albert Museum — London • Fret — 1956 — jacquard-woven fabric — CIRC.680A-1956 — Victoria and Albert Museum — London • Fret — 1956 — jacquard-woven fabric — CIRC.680B-1956 — Victoria and Albert Museum — London • Light Box — 1974 — glass & acrylic plastic — AH01527/75 — Abbot Hall Art Gallery — Cumbria, England • Light Box — 1974 — glass & acrylic plastic — AH01528/75 — Abbot Hall Art Gallery — Cumbria, England • Light Box — - — glass & perspex — L.F461.1976.0.0 — New Walk Museum & Art Gallery — Leicestershire, England • Poppy head on a blue ground — 1980 — watercolour — P.15-1981 — Victoria and Albert Museum — London • Standing Stones — c.1959 — moulded concrete — 008 — Loughborough University — Leicestershire, England • Yellow Nude Collage — 1974 — gouache & cut paper collage — P.16-1981 — Victoria and Albert Museum — London