Theo Brown (16 December 1914 – 3 February 1993) was a British scholar of Devon folklore. She was lecturer in Comparative Religion at

Exeter University The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School o ...

Biography

Theo Brown was born Jean Marion Pryce in London. Her mother died in childbirth. Her father – a scholar, who was later to become Keeper of Classical Antiquities at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

– was unable to look after her, and put her into an orphanage. She was adopted by Dorothy Langford Brown, of Barton Hall, Kingskerswell, Devon, and renamed Theodora Brown. Brown studied at

Westminster School of Art The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. History The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum. H. M. Bateman descri ...

, where she was taught by

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

among others, and where she met her lifelong friend, Margaret Matcham. She joined the Kenn group of artists. During the Second World War she joined the

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the World War I, First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in ...

but as her mother insisted she remain near to home, her time was spent in home defence duties. When joining the Wrens she had to produce a birth certificate, and so found out about her adoption – something which caused her much distress at the time. After the war, depressed and alone, she chanced to meet W. F. Jackson Knight in the station café of Exeter Central railway station. (This meeting is engagingly described in Jackson Knights Biography). He had a profound influence on her life thereafter, turning her to studies of

Folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

and

Comparative Religion Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including human migration, migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study ...

, subjects in which she eventually became Lecturer at Exeter University. She was a significant member of the school of folklorists who were influenced by Jungian psychology, and believed that it was possible to identify in folklore the abiding archetypes of the collective unconscious. She gathered a large collection of stories and traditions, which are now deposited at the Devon and Exeter Institution, and her notes and unpublished work at the Exeter University Library. Barton Hall Devon 1870

Brown died in Exeter on 3 February 1993.

Works

Selected publications * 1954 ''The Dartmoor Legend of Mrs. Childe''. Folklore 65, 103-9. * 1958 ''The Black Dog''. Folklore 69, 175-192. *1961 ''Tales of a Dartmoor Village''. Some preliminary notes on the folklore of Postbridge. West Country Folklore No. 7. St. Peter Port, Guernsey. *Reprinted from Transactions of the Devonshire Association XCIII (1961) 194-227]. *1964 ''Living Images'', Folklore 73, 25-40. *1968 (with Stephen Dewar) ''Ghostly Gold and Goblin Titles''. West Country Folklore No. 2. St. Peter Port, Guernsey. *1970a ''Trojans in the West Country, West Country Folklore No. 4''. St. Peter Port, Guernsey. *1970b ''Charming in Devon''. Folklore 81, 19-47. *1975 ''West Country Entrances to the Underworld'', in ''The Journey to the Other World'', H.R.E. Davidson ed., Mistletoe Series No. 12. Folklore Society, London. *1978 ''The Black Dog in English Folklore'',' in ''Animals in Folklore''. J.R. Porter and W.M.S. Russell, eds. Mistletoe Series No. 9. Folklore Society, London. *1979 ''The Fate of the Dead: A Study in Folk Eschatology in the West Country after the Reformation''. Mistletoe Series No. 12. Folklore Society, London. *1981 ''The Ghost of Old Mrs Leakey'', in ''The Folklore of Ghosts'', H.R.E. Davidson and W.M.S. Russell, eds., Mistletoe Series No. 15, Folklore Society, London. *1982 ''Devon Ghosts''. Norwich.

References

External links

The Folklore of Devon

Theo Brown personal and research papers
at the University of Exeter Special Collections

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Theo 1914 births 1993 deaths Devon folklore English folklorists Academics of the University of Exeter Alumni of the Westminster School of Art Scientists from London Women in World War II