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Kathleen Parbury

British sculptor (1901–1986)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ21466403 ↗
Source-derived summary

Kathleen Ophir Theodora Parbury (23 August 1901 – 1986) was a British artist and sculptor, known for the large sculptures she created for British churches and internationally. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1966.

Biography

Parbury was born at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire and, between 1920 and 1924, studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London where her teachers included the sculptor James Havard Thomas. Parbury went on produce portrait works and figures, mainly working in bronze, but also other materials. Among her portrait sculptures are figures of Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, Sir Vivian Fuchs and Dame Sybil Thorndike.

Parbury created a number of large sculptures for British churches. Her largest work was a sculpture group of several figures, The Risen Christ, for an exterior wall of the church of St Michael and All Angels at Bemerton in Wiltshire. The work consists of a Christ figure with two angels and symbols representing the choir of angels. In 1958, Parbury produced an eight foot Madonna and Child for St Mary's in West Twyford in London and the following year created four sculptures of angels for St Columba's Church in Sutton Coldfield. Her 1961 large figure of Saint Aidan is on the facade of the Church of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne in East Acton.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kathleen Parbury” as british sculptor (1901–1986). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1901, 1986, 1966, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1901-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Kathleen, Parbury and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as british sculptor (1901–1986). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21466403. VIAF identifies the subject as 126575806. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1986, 1966 and 1920.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Kathleen Parbury primary sources, Kathleen Parbury archive and Kathleen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Kathleen Parbury” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.