Henrietta Phipps, who has died aged 84, was a panorama gardener for Kensington and Chelsea Council who formed the look of the royal borough; the daughter of the artist, Henry Lamb, and the author, Girl Pansy Pakenham, she figured prominently in her father’s footage and did a lot to advertise his works.
The oldest of three, Henrietta Frances Lamb was born at Paddington on December 9 1931. Her father was 21 years her mom’s senior, however the marriage was a contented one, spent at Coombe Bissett, south of Salisbury.
Henrietta was introduced up within the coronary heart of the literary set of her mom, the older sister of Lord Longford, the jail reformer. Amongst her mom’s pals have been Evelyn Waugh and John Betjeman, who described a typical household scene: “O the calm of Coombe Bissett is tranquil and deep, / The place Ebble flows gentle in her downland asleep; / There magnificence to me got here a-pushing a pram / Within the form of the candy Pansy Felicia Lamb.”
Henrietta was surrounded by her father’s creative pals. The Nationwide Portrait Gallery has {a photograph} of a five-year-old Henrietta dancing round with a parasol. The image was taken by Girl Ottoline Morrell, the literary hostess and patron of the humanities.
Tate Britain owns an entrancing Henry Lamb – The Artist’s Household, painted in 1940 – through which Henrietta, now eight, steals the image once more, along with her vivid gaze and extensive, humorous mouth.
Henrietta Lamb was probably the most bookish of a bookish household. Pansy as soon as wrote to her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Pakenham, in a letter inviting her daughter, Antonia Pakenham (later Fraser), to remain: “Henrietta is ideal with one exception: she is going to spend two hours within the bathtub studying John Buchan.”
By the point the younger Antonia Pakenham arrived at Coombe Bissett, Henrietta, barely a teen, had devoured Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love. She directed Antonia to the juicy passages, particularly the bit the place Fabrice suggests coming as much as Linda’s bed room in the midst of the evening and Linda says: “I have to say it might be very good” – which grew to become a catchphrase between the 2 women after they went off to the Godolphin Faculty, Salisbury.
By the point Henrietta Lamb bought to Somerville School, Oxford, she had grow to be a Roman Catholic. It was a daring step – her father was not simply an atheist however an argumentative atheist.
After Oxford, Henrietta Lamb labored for the author Peter Quennell at Historical past At the moment. She shared a basement flat within the Pakenhams’ home, 14 Cheyne Gardens, with Antonia, then working for Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
The “Basement Years” noticed a procession of younger males trooping up and down the realm steps. The 2 women couldn’t afford the robust drink demanded by their raffish escorts. So Henrietta devised the “Whisky Resolution”. This concerned fishing an empty bottle of Haig out of the dustbin, then pouring into it the contents of a Haig miniature – simply sufficient for one first rate glass for the swain, after which Henrietta would utter a cry of shock: “What’s this? I can’t consider it, the whisky’s completed.”
Henrietta Phipps inherited a few of her father’s expertise however, maybe overawed by his shadow, turned to panorama gardening for Kensington and Chelsea Council. Amongst her works was the landscaping for the Kensington New Pool at Notting Hill, together with many one other civic facilities.
She was the mainstay of the Ladbroke Sq. Gardens Committee, which taken care of considered one of London’s greatest non-public backyard squares.
Henrietta Phipps was additionally instrumental in preserving her father’s legacy: lending works to exhibitions, advising artwork historians and generously giving footage to members of the family.
In 1960, she married the silversmith, William Phipps, son of Sir Eric Phipps, Britain’s ambassador in Berlin between 1933 and 1937. Hitler introduced a rose tree to have fun William’s start, and William, a joker, typically claimed that the Führer had dandled him on his knee.
William and Henrietta Phipps met when Henry Lamb painted Sir Eric. They have been not often removed from one another’s facet till his demise in 2009. Their daughter and three sons survive her.
Henrietta Phipps, born December 9 1931, died Could 27 2016
