Edith Holman Hunt Biography

Marion Edith Holman Hunt, nee Waugh (1846-1931), was the second wife of the Pre-Raphaelite founder and artist, William Holman Hunt.  She was the daughter of George Waugh, a chemist, and the younger sister of Holman Hunt's first wife, Fanny.

At the end of 1866, Fanny died in childbirth in Italy. At the time, it was illegal in Great Britain to marry one's deceased wife's sister, so the two of them travelled abroad and married at Neuchâtel (in francophone Switzerland) in November 1875. This led to a grave conflict with other family members.

Gladys Mulock Holman Hunt was born to the couple in 1877 in Jerusalem, and a son, Hilary, was born in London in 1880. Edith was also stepmother to her dead sister's son, Cyril Bernoni Holman Hunt (1866-1934).