[45566] St Editha, Tamworth : Dean Window

St Editha, Tamworth, Staffordshire.

Dean Memorial Window, 1940 - detail.

By Florence Camm (1874-1960).

To the Glory of Almighty God and in loving memory of Esther Dean who died the 11th day of October 1939. This memorial was placed here by her husband Herbert Dean.

 

Florence Camm spent all her life in Smethwick, running the successful Camm stained glass company with her two brothers at a time when women artists and designers were struggling to be taken seriously. Florence was a stained glass designer, painter and decorative metalworker. She exhibited 43 times at the Royal Academy in London and also showed at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Royal Scottish Academy.

 

Florence was the daughter of Thomas William Camm who was born in 1839 in Spon Lane, West Bromwich. He set up the TW Camm stained glass business in Smethwick and Florence and her two brothers, Walter and Robert, continued after he died in 1912. Florence was taught stained glass design by the arts and crafts designer Henry Payne (1868-1940).

 

Robert died in 1954, Florence in 1960 and Walter in 1967. The firm closed at about the same time. The studio in the High Street in Smethwick was demolished in the 1980s and a shop now stands on the site.

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