Mary W. Parker

Mary Winifrid Smith (1904–1992) was a British painter.

Life

Smith was born Mary Winifrid Parker on 29 February 1904, in Bury, Lancashire, being their third child, and only daughter, of four. At the time of the 1911 census, the family lived at The Elms, Walshaw Road, Bury.

Parker was educated at Bury High School, Bury Art School, and then the Slade School of Fine Art from 1923 to 1927, under Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer. While a student, she won the 1926 First Prize (Equal) for a painting, Portrait of a Bearded Old Man, which remains in the collection of University College London, the Slade's parent body. She was offered to opportunity to assist Rex Whistler with the decorations for Cunard's RMS Queen Mary, but declined, being, in her own words, "too shy".

Smith became Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum in 1930, and so he and Parker returned to London, and a house they purchased at 7, Fellows Road, Belsize Park.

Many of Parker's canvases were destroyed in a 1941 air raid during World War II, The couple retired to Barcombe in 1955. in Dalmeny, New South Wales, having moved to Australia to be with her daughter following Sidney's death in 1979, and her diagnosis with dementia. New Street, Baghdad (1930); The National Trust. (New Street, Baghdad is now known as "Rashid Street") (also depicts Zoe) Sussex Farm, (1962); Lewisham Local History and Archives Centre, originally purchased by London County Council

She variously signed her works, and exhibited, as "Mary W. Parker" (to circa 1939), "Mary Parker Smith", "Mary W. Smith" (up to 1951), or "Mary Smith" (from circa 1951). Some directories thus list her more than once.