Julia Trevelyan Oman, Lady Strong

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(11 July 1930 – 10 October 2003) was an English television, theatre, ballet and opera set designer.

Biography

Julia Trevelyan Oman was born on 11 July 1930 in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London.Alan Stracha
"Obituary: Julia Trevelyan Oman"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 13 October 2003 Her father was Charles Chichele Oman, Keeper of Metalwork at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, son of Sir

Charles Oman Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, (12 January 1860 – 23 June 1946) was a British Military history, military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. ...

; her mother the historian Joan Trevelyan,"Julia Trevelyan Oman (Obituary)"
''The Daily Telegraph'', 12 October 2003 daughter of Calcutta High Court judge Sir Ernest John Trevelyan.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography She was educated at

Wimbledon College of Art Wimbledon College of Arts, formerly Wimbledon School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college specialises in theatre, screen and performance arts and design ...

and then at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, where she won a silver medal in 1955. Among the BBC television programmes Oman worked on were ''

Dixon of Dock Green ''Dixon of Dock Green'' is a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 1955 ...

'' and the ''

Billy Cotton Band Show The ''Billy Cotton Band Show'' was a Sunday lunchtime radio programme broadcast in the BBC Light Programme from 1949 until 1968. The band leader, Billy Cotton, was a larger-than-life Cockney character who started each show with the cry "Wakey-W ...

''. In 1966, she won the designer of the year award for her contribution to

Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, comedian and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 19 ...

's television production of ''Alice in Wonderland''. In 1968 she won the ''

Plays and Players Hansom Books was a British publisher founded in 1947 by Philip Dosse to produce the magazine ''Dance and Dancers''. Magazines in a similar format were then founded to cover mainly other performing artforms, all seven magazines eventually being k ...

'' “Best Set” award for

Brief Lives ''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century. Writing Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who ...

, directed by

Patrick Garland Patrick Ewart Garland (10 April 1935 – 19 April 2013) was a British director, writer and actor. Career Garland was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Is ...

, with whom she worked on several occasions. She later designed sets for the

Chichester Festival Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Mart ...

Hamburg State Opera The Hamburg State Opera (in German: ) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' ...

, the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

, the National Theatre, the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, and the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

. Oman's design work is classed as a highly detailed naturalism, often researching her location and time period extensively. She was concerned primarily with the creation of an entire visual effect, often designing both the set and costumes to have full control over the transportive nature of the aesthetics of the production she worked on. Her designs are endearing, with many of her ballet designs still performed in on stage, including the Royal Ballet's ''The Nutcracker'' which still uses her original set and costumes from 1984.Maynard, Elise (2024) ''Fantasy through naturalism: Julia Trevelyan Oman and The Nutcracker'' Studies in Costume and Performance 9.1 https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00107_1 Oman married the art historian

Roy Strong Sir Roy Colin Strong, (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. ...

on 10 September 1971, at

Wilmcote Wilmcote is a village, and since 2004 a separate civil parish, in the English county of Warwickshire, about north of Stratford-upon-Avon. Prior to 2004, it was part of the same parish as Aston Cantlow, and the 2001 population for the whole a ...

church, near

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

, with a special licence from the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

. She was 41 and her husband 36. They lived at Much Birch, Herefordshire, where they made one of Britain's largest post-war formal gardens, The Laskett. In 1995 they commissioned the artist

Jonathan Myles-Lea Jonathan Myles-Lea (23 January 1969 – 25 August 2021) was an English painter of country houses, historic buildings, and landscapes, typically taking the form of aerial views. Clients have included Charles, Prince of Wales; and the National ...

to paint a 'portrait' of the house and gardens and the painting ''The Laskett'' was completed the same year. She and Strong also wrote books together. Oman appeared as a castaway on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

'' on 18 December 1971, and was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

1986 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1986 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countri ...

Death and legacy

She died at Much Birch, on 10 October 2003, of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

. A number of her paintings, including a self-portrait, are in the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

's Theatre Collection.

References

External links

*
Julia Trevelyan Oman archive
Theatre Collection,

* Fantasy through naturalism: Julia Trevelyan Oman and The Nutcracke

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trevelyan Oman, Julia 1930 births 2003 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English set decorators People from Kensington Alumni of Wimbledon College of Arts Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from London Deaths from pancreatic cancer in England Wives of knights