Marjorie Josephine Maynard

Marjorie Josephine Maynard, Lady Garbett (23 January 1891 – 23 October 1975) was a British artist and farmer who designed some of the first set of postage stamps issued in Iraq. In later life, she brought and lost a high-profile court case after being evicted from her farmstead.

Early life

Maynard's poem, "Laverstock Downs", and one of her cartoons, were published in Indian Ink in 1917 in aid of the Imperial Indian War Fund. The cartoon depicting Belgium as a widow whose children have been killed by Germany, was praised by Pothan Joseph in an article in East And West magazine.

Stamp designs

alt=Monochrome postage stamp in landscape format, blue on white, with an engraving of a ruined building, surrounded by decorative scrollwork. Wording as described in article.

With Edith Cheesman, Maynard was the designer of the first postage stamps issued by Iraq (then known as the Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, as established in 1921), depicting historic Iraqi art and architecture. Her designs were signed "MJM 1921", although the stamps were not issued until 1923. at Horam in East Sussex, in 1949, for £12,500. She worked the farm under her maiden name, with her daughter, Susan, The resultant poor farming standards led to multiple interventions by her local County Agricultural Executive Committee, starting in 1950, culminating with the farm being taken into government control in February 1956 through a "dispossession order" under powers conferred by the 1947 Agriculture Act. as well as television coverage. Her High Court case, before the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Goddard), Mr Justice Cassells and Mr Justice Lynskey, attempting to have the dispossession declared illegal, was dismissed on 30 January 1957, and she sold the farm at auction in July that year. He was then in the Colonial Civil Service in India and, from 1920 to 1922, worked as Secretary to the High Commissioner of Iraq, then as Deputy Commissioner and later Commissioner.

His appointment in the 1941 Birthday Honours as a Knight Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire entitled her to use the title "Lady". They were later estranged.

Marjorie Maynard, Lady Garbett, died on 23 October 1975.