Kathleen Scott

Kathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce FRSBS, (27 March 1878 - 25 July 1947) was a British sculptor.

She attended the Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1900 to 1902, and then enrolled at the Académie Colarossi in Paris from 1902 to 1906 and was befriended by Rodin.

Works

Three of Scott's busts feature in the National Portrait Gallery's collection (London), and she is also the subject of thirteen photograpic portraits there.

She sculpted at least two statues of her first husband, Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, after his death. One of these is located in Christchurch, New Zealand [http://www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz/Publications/1997/PublicArtInChristchurch/ScottStatue/] and another is in Waterloo Place, London, SW1. A plaque of Scott is on the exterior the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge with a statue of Youth (1920) for which the model was A.W. Lawrence, younger brother of Lawrence of Arabia.

She also sculpted a statue of Edward Smith, captain of the "Titanic", after his death. This is situated in Lichfield, England.

A statue at Oundle School entitled "Here Am I, Send Me" is erroneously held to be modelled on Peter Scott. [http://www.westdowns.com/scott1.htm]

Family

Born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce at Carlton-in-Lindrick, Nottinghamshire, she was the youngest of eleven children of Canon Lloyd Stuart Bruce (1829 – 1886) and Jane Skene († 1880).

She married the antarctic explorer Captain Robert Scott on 2 September 1908, and gave birth to her first son, Peter Markham Scott, in 1909. who became famous in broadcasting, ornithology, painting, conservation and sport. In 1910, she accompanied Scott to New Zealand, and in February 1913, whilst travelling back to New Zealand to greet Scott on his return, she learned of his death in March 1912 in mid-ocean.

In 1922, she married the politician Edward Hilton Young. Her second son, Wayland Hilton Young, was born on 2 August 1923. He is a writer and politician. Her grandchildren include Emily Young, artist, and Louisa Young, writer.

Titles

In 1913 she was granted the rank (but not the style) of a widow of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. This meant that for the purposes of establishing official precedence, she was treated as if she were the widow of such a knight. However she was not entitled to be called Lady Scott merely by virtue of this, and it did not amount to Captain Scott being posthumously knighted.

When her second husband was created Baron Kennet on 15 July 1935, she gained the title Baroness Kennet.

Biographies

*Autobiography (1932)
*"A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott", ISBN 0-333-57838-4 (1995) - Louisa Young
*"A Father for my Son" (biographical play, premiered 2000), - Jenny Coverack