1. Patricia Cockburn was an Irish writer, traveler, conchologist and artist.
24 Facts About Patricia Cockburn
1. 2.
Patricia Cockburn was best known for her journalism and her later artistic career, creating shell pictures.
3.
Patricia Cockburn was born Patricia Evangeline Anne Arbuthnot on 17 March 1914 at Derry House, Rosscarbery, County Cork.
4.
Patricia Cockburn was the youngest of the six children of Major John Bernard Arbuthnot and Olive Blake, daughter of Lady Edith Blake and Sir Henry Arthur Blake.
5.
Patricia Cockburn's father served in the Scots Guards during World War I The family inherited the Blake fortune through Olive once her brothers were cut out of her parents' will.
6.
Patricia Cockburn joined her parents in London in 1922 to start school.
7.
Patricia Cockburn was unhappy at school and missed her life in the countryside.
8.
Patricia Cockburn stopped eating, inspired by Terence MacSwiney, and was returned to Cork with a governess.
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Patricia Cockburn remained there, ceasing her school lessons at 14 to concentrate on her horse riding.
10.
The couple married on 10 October 1993, which led to Patricia Cockburn leaving her artistic studies.
11.
Patricia Cockburn accepted a brief from the Royal Geographical Society to compile an etymological report on the dialects of central Africa.
12.
Patricia Cockburn constructed a language map by meeting different tribes.
13.
Patricia Cockburn was not a linguist, but instead used observation and pragmatism.
14.
Patricia Cockburn's parents objected to the relationship and cut her off when she married him in 1940.
15.
Patricia Cockburn grew tired of London, and in 1947, the family returned to Cork, where her brother and parents were living.
16.
Patricia Cockburn installed a cesspit and created a garden, as well as schooling ponies she purchased from Travellers and sold on to buyers in England.
17.
Patricia Cockburn published her first book in 1968, The Years of the Week, about her husband's paper.
18.
Patricia Cockburn returned to art as a career later in life.
19.
Patricia Cockburn began making shell pictures, a form of art that had been popular in the 18th century but had fallen out of fashion.
20.
Claud died in 1981, and Patricia Cockburn lived in Ardmore for the rest of her life.
21.
Patricia Cockburn became president of the local chapter of the Irish Countrywomen's Association.
22.
Patricia Cockburn published her memoir, Figure of Eight, in 1985.
23.
Patricia Cockburn died on 6 October 1989 at Mercy University Hospital, Cork, from cancer.
24.
Patricia Cockburn was buried beside her husband in the graveyard of the Collegiate Church of St Mary Youghal, under a tree planted by her mother in memory of her brother.