Rachel de Montmorency

Rachel de Montmorency, born Rachel Marion Tancock (15 July 1891 – 15 November 1961), was an English painter and artist working in stained glass. She learned about stained glass when she worked for artist Christopher Whall in the 1910s and 1920s. During World War I, she worked as a voluntary nurse.

After she married Miles de Montmorency (1893–1963) in 1931, the couple often worked together on her commissions. She was a follower of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Biography Rachel was born on 15 July 1891, at Rossall, Fleetwood, Lancashire. Her father, the Rev. Charles Coverdale Tancock D.D., was the headmaster of Rossall School. He became headmaster of Tonbridge School in Kent and hired stained glass artist Christopher Whall to create a set of windows for the school's chapel.

Rachel became one of Whall's pupils after completing her studies at Heathfield School, Ascot. She studied painting and stained glass-making whilst assisting in Whall's studio. She assisted Whall and Edward Woore with windows at Sorbie Church in Wigtownshire in 1910. It was here that she would have met Edward Woore, Karl Parsons, and Arnold Robinson.

Although she became crippled by arthritis in her later years, she was able to work until a few days before her death on 15 November 1961.

St. Saviour’s Church Montmorency completed an East window above the High Altar in St. Saviour's Church in Guernsey, Channel Islands. It was funded by public subscription and dedicated in 1956. The drawings of the window were among the exhibits of an exhibition of stained glass at the Building Centre in London in 1956. The window is of three-lights and depicts Christ in Majesty with scenes from the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion and the Road to Emmaus.

Holy Trinity The Anglican Parish Church of The Holy Trinity in Street, Somerset, dating from the 14th century, has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. In 1949, Rachel completed a three-light East window for the church which depicts Christ with St. Gildas and St. Dunstan and the Virgin and Child with Samuel and John the Baptist.

St. Mary Magdalene St. Mary Magdalene in Wandsworth, Inner London has two three-light windows completed in 1954 for the North Aisle West by Rachel de Montmorency, who was assisted by her husband. One window depicts a lamb, St. John the Baptist and a Pelican and the other, Mary Magdalene, the Madonna and Child and Simeon.

St. John the Evangelist Rachel de Montmorency's three-light East window for St. John the Evangelist Church, Grays North Grays in Little Thurrock, Essex serves as a Second World War memorial. The window, created in 1947, depicts the Apostles and Our Risen Lord and it is recorded that the faces of these Apostles were deliberately made youthful by way of a tribute to the youth of many of those who died. The window includes the crests of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Merchant Navy and over and below the depiction of Jesus are the words "I am the vine and ye are the branches". See photographs in gallery belo

St. John's Church St. John's Church, a Grade II listed building, is situated in Walham Green, Fulham, London. The church, built in 1828, is a mixture of styles with a Georgian Chancel and pointed Gothic revival arches and windows. Rachel executed a single light window for the South Aisle in 1946, which depicts St. George and another in the North Aisle area which depicts St. John. The original East window, a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration, blew out in a gale in the 1880s and was later replaced. Miles de Montmorency assisted Rachel with these windows. Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day remodelled the interior in 1935. There is a 1936 east window modeled by Christopher Webb, and in 1950, Rachel de Montmorency was responsible for the first window in the South Nave. This window was installed in memory of Captain Charles Bunburby R.N, who was a sidesman and a member of the Parochial Church Council for many years. The window depicts St. Nicholas, patron of sailors, who holds a ship; below, there is a lighthouse. The inscription reads "He bringeth them unto the haven where they would be".

St. Michael and All Angels Church Situated in Ocklynge, Eastbourne, Sussex, St. Michael and All Angels Church was opened in 1901, and the Nave and Tower were finished in 1911. The church has an East window by James Powell and Sons, and Rachel completed a two-light North window in 1950.

Cheltenham College Chapel

Rachel completed several windows in the chapel's narthex. These windows depict the coats of arms of the 10 schools belonging to the Public Schools Masonic Chapter: Cheltenham, Marlborough, Westminster, Charterhouse, Clifton, Wellington, Sherborne, Bradfield, Winchester and Rugby.

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