Edith Farmiloe Biography

Edith Farmiloe (1870-1921) was a British children's book author and illustrator, active from 1895 to about 1905.

Edith Caroline Parnell was born in Gillingham, Kent, England, in 1870. Her father was Colonel Hon. Arthur Parnell (1841-1914) and her mother was Mary Anne Dunn.

On 7 April 1891, Edith married Venerable William Farmiloe, then vicar of St Peter's in Great Windmill Street, Soho, London. She was living with her husband at 124 Ashley Gardens, opposite Westminster Cathedral in 1901 and was by then listed in the census as an "artist". In 1905, Rev. Farmiloe and his wife moved to South Hackney where he became vicar of St. Augustine's overlooking Victoria Park.

Between 1895 and 1909, Farmiloe wrote about and illustrated the lives of children living in her husband's parish in Soho, and later in South Hackney. Her sketches, from her observing children playing on the streets, were used in Events of the Season, which appeared first in Little Folks magazine in November 1895. 

Farmiloe went on to illustrate many children's books, including All the World Over (1898), with verses by Edward Verrall Lucas. This collaboration resulted from an association with the publisher Franklin Thomas Grant Richards (who traded as 'Grant Richards'), made in 1897 when she created endpaper designs for his first three 'Dumpy Books for Children'. In All the World Over Farmiloe originated the colour drawings, receiving a royalty of 10% for the first 1500 copies and 15% thereafter. The venture was a success and 2000 copies had sold by the end of 1898.

Farmiloe both wrote and illustrated at least eight books herself. These included 'Chousers' and other stories (1898), Piccalilli (1900), Chapel Street Children (1900), Young George - his Life (1902) and Mr Biddle and the Dragon (1904).

Farmiloe died on 26 March 1921 at Abbey House, Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk, aged 50, and is commemorated in a stained-glass window memorial by Robert Anning Bell in St James's, Nayland. The text reads "Edith Caroline Farmiloe and her life-work among women and children are here commemorated by her husband...who shared in her work and found in her fellowship and example an inspiration for his ministry in London."

Selected works:-

All the World Over (1898) with verses by writer E.V. Lucas

The Bad Family & other stories (1898) with E. Fenwick

'Chousers' and other stories (1898) with Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK)

Rag, Tag and Bobtail (1898) with her sister, writer Winifred Parnell

Piccalilli (1900)

Chapel Street Children (1900)

The Bountiful Lady, or How Mary was Changed from a Very Miserable Little Girl to a Very Happy One (1900) with writer Thomas Cobb and other illustrators

Little Citizens (1901) with Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK)

Young George - his Life (1902)

Mr and Mrs Tiddliwinks (1902), with Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK)

One Day (1903) with other writers

Mr Biddle and the Dragon (1904)

Elizabeth over-the-Way (1905)

Our Darlings (1910) with writers W. Davenport Adams, Catharine Shaw, and illustrators Harry B. Neilson, Louis Wain.