People from the Past 7: Cecil Elgee (1904-84)

Like many Budleigh residents of the past, the artist Cecil Elgee had an Anglo-Indian background and it was for this that her name will be known by those familiar with Costumes and Characters in the Days of the British Raj , the book which appeared just before her death. But her work as a painter and illustrator covered a wide range of subjects. Born in 1904, Cecil Elgee, better known by her family nickname as Moppie or Mops, went out to India to join her parents in Bombay in 1922 when she was 18. She studied part time at the Bombay School of Art, where she was the only European apart from the headmaster, the architect Claude Batley (1879-1956). The School,...