Mabel Batten

Mabel Batten as a young woman

Mabel Veronica Hatch Batten (née Hatch; 1856–1916) was a British singer of lieder.

Early life

She was born Mabel Hatch in a well-connected family.[1]

She studied harmony and composition in Dresden and Bruges.[2]

Career

Mrs. George Batten Singing by John Singer Sargent

She was a leading "patroness of music and the arts, mezzo-soprano and composer" of drawing room songs.[1] One of her best compositions[according to whom?] was the setting of "The Queen's Last Ride", a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox about the funeral of Queen Victoria. She was an accomplished singer, pianist and guitar player.[3]

Personal life

Mabel Batten at the time of her relationship with Radclyffe Hall
Vault of Mabel Batten and Radclyffe Hall in Highgate Cemetery

In 1874 she married George Batten, secretary to the Viceroy of India.[1] They had one daughter, the painter and film maker Lady Cara Harris.[2]

In the 1880s she had a relationship with Wilfred Scawen Blunt.[2]

She was friends with composer Adela Maddison who, in 1893, dedicated her "Deux Melodies" to her.[2][4] She was also friends with composer Ethel Smyth.[3]

From 1906 she was friends with Toupie Lowther and her brother Claude Lowther.

On 22 August 1907, at Bad Homburg, a spa in Germany, Mabel Batten met Radclyffe Hall. Batten was 51 years old and Hall was 27. In 1913 Batten and Hall visited the Lowthers at Claude's Herstmonceux Castle.[3] When Batten was a widow, she went to live with Hall in Cadogan Square.[1] Batten, nicknamed Ladye, gave the name John to Hall, which Hall used for the rest of her life.[5]

In 1915 Hall met Batten's cousin Una Troubridge (1887–1963). When Batten died the following year, Troubridge took care of a defeated Hall and in 1917 they went to live together.[6]

Batten is buried in a vault in the Circle of Lebanon on the western side of Highgate Cemetery in London, and Hall chose to be buried at the entrance of the crypt.[2]

Legacy

Mabel Batten's portraits were taken by John Singer Sargent and Edward John Poynter.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Hamer, Emily (2016). Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 94. ISBN 9781474292801. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Batten, Mabel Veronica". Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Brown, Val (2017). Toupie Lowther: Her life. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 57. ISBN 9781788035231. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  4. ^ Seddon, Laura (2016). British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 9781317171348. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  5. ^ Cline, Sally (1999). Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John. Overlook Press. pp. 58–67.
  6. ^ "Radclyffe Hall". A purnell. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006.