Batten, Mabel Veronica |
| SINGER, SOCIETY BEAUTY (GREAT BRITAIN) |
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BORN 1856 - DIED 1916 BIRTH NAME Hatch, Mabel CAUSE OF DEATH stroke GRAVE LOCATION London: Highgate Cemetery West, Swain's Lane, Highgate (Catacombs) |
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Mabel Batten was born Mabel Hatch. She was a well known amateur singer, whose portrait was painted by John Singer Sargent as well as Edward John Poynter. She studied harmony and composition in Dresden and Bruges. In 1874 she married George Batten with whom she had a daughter, the painter and film maker Lady Cara Harris. In the 1880s she had an affair with Wilfred Scawen Blunt. She was a close friend of the composer Adela Maddison who dedicated her "Deux Melodies" to her in 1893. When she was about fifty years old she started an affair with the lesbian Radclyffe Hall. They had met in 1907 in Homburg and her husband politely withdrew. In 1915 Hall's attraction to Una Troubridge caused a quarrel resulting in a final stroke for Battten in 1916. She was buried at Highgate West Cemetery and Radclyffe Hall was buried beside her in 1943. Related persons • was the lover of Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen • was the lover of Hall, Radclyffe • was painted by Sargent, John Singer Events |
| 22/8/1907 | First meeting between Radclyffe Hall and Mabel Batten in Homburg [Hall, Radclyffe] |
| Images | |
 The entrance to the tomb of Radclyffe Hall and Mabel Batten at the catacombs of Highgate West Cemetery, London. Picture by Androom (12 Dec 1993) |
 The grave of Radclyffe Hall and Mabel Batten at Highgate Cemetery West, London. Picture by Androom (28 Mar 2016) |
Sources • Culbertson, Judi & Tom Randall, Permanent Londoners, Robson Books, London, 1991 • Souhami, Diana, The Trials of Radclyffe Hall, Virago Press, London, 1999 |
