Mabel Batten
British singer (1856–1916)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Early life
Career
She was a leading "patroness of music and the arts, mezzo-soprano and composer" of drawing room songs.[1] One of her best compositions[according to whom?] was the setting of "The Queen's Last Ride", a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox about the funeral of Queen Victoria. She was an accomplished singer, pianist and guitar player.[3]
Personal life
In 1874 she married George Batten, secretary to the Viceroy of India.[1] They had one daughter, the painter and film maker Lady Cara Harris.[2]
In the 1880s she had a relationship with Wilfred Scawen Blunt.[2]
She was friends with composer Adela Maddison who, in 1893, dedicated her "Deux Melodies" to her.[2][4] She was also friends with composer Ethel Smyth.[3]
From 1906 she was friends with Toupie Lowther and her brother Claude Lowther.
On 22 August 1907, at Bad Homburg, a spa in Germany, Mabel Batten met Radclyffe Hall. Batten was 51 years old and Hall was 27. In 1913 Batten and Hall visited the Lowthers at Claude's Herstmonceux Castle.[3] When Batten was a widow, she went to live with Hall in Cadogan Square.[1] Batten, nicknamed Ladye, gave the name John to Hall, which Hall used for the rest of her life.[5]
In 1915 Hall met Batten's cousin Una Troubridge (1887–1963). When Batten died the following year, Troubridge took care of a defeated Hall and in 1917 they went to live together.[6]
Batten is buried in a vault in the Circle of Lebanon on the western side of Highgate Cemetery in London, and Hall chose to be buried at the entrance of the crypt.[2]
Legacy
Mabel Batten's portraits were taken by John Singer Sargent and Edward John Poynter.[2]