Rosamund Brunel Gotch (27 February 1864 – 22 January 1949) was an English stage costume designer, illustrator and writer. She was born Rosamund Brunel Horsley in Cranbrook, Kent, the youngest of four sons and three daughters. Her parents were the artist John Calcott Horsley and his second wife Rosamund Haden, sister of the etcher Seymour Haden. She was named Brunel after her uncle by marriage

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

. Her brother

Victor Horsley Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley (14 April 1857 – 16 July 1916) was a British scientist and professor. He was born in Kensington, London. Educated at Cranbrook School, Kent, he studied medicine at University College London and in Berlin, G ...

became famous as a surgeon and neuropathologist. Her elder sister Frances (aka Fanny Marion, later Lady Whitelegge, 1859–1949) married the doctor and occupational health pioneer Sir Arthur Whitelegge. Rosamund married the Oxford neurophysiologist

Francis Gotch Francis Gotch (13 July 1853 – 15 July 1913) was a British neurophysiologist who was professor of physiology at University College Liverpool and Oxford University. He was educated at Amersham Hall School and then at London University graduat ...

at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster on 15 December 1887. They lived at 'The Lawn', 89 Banbury Road in Oxford. As an illustrator she contributed a frontispiece and twenty plates of human hand lithographs to Edward Heron-Allen's chirognomy and cheiromancy manual ''A Manual of Cheirosophy'' (1900). Francis Gotch died in 1913. Later in life she worked for many years as a stage costume designer, dressing over 160 productions at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

's Parry Theatre, including three operas by

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

: '' Hugh the Drover'' (1924), ''The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains'' (1925) and ''

Sir John in Love ''Sir John in Love'' is an opera in four acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' and supplemented with texts by Philip Sidney, Thomas Mi ...

'' (1929). She became a friend of Vaughan Williams and Hugh Allen. Gotch wrote two books connected to her family history. In 1934 she edited for publication a collection of the letters of Fanny and Sophy Horsley, daughters of the composer William Horsley, between 1833 and 1836, recalling events at No. 1, High Row, Kensington Gravel Pits (now 128 Kensington Church Street) at a time when

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

was a frequent visitor. Rosamund Gotch grew up in the same house. The second book was a biography of her great-great-aunt by marriage Maria, Lady Callcott. She died at 20 St Giles, Oxford in January 1949, aged 84. Her daughter was the violist Veronica Gotch, a member of the Whinyates String Quartet in the 1930s and early 1940s.'Whinyates Quartet', in ''Radio Times'' Issue 877, 21 July 1940, p. 16
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References

External links

Archive of the Horsley family, Bodleian Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotch, Rosamund Brunel 1864 births 1949 deaths Artists from Kent English costume designers English lithographers English women biographers English women illustrators Family of William Horsley People from Cranbrook, Kent Women lithographers Writers from Kent