In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1887
- Died
- 1955
- Birthplace
- Drumreilly, County Leitrim
- Country
- Ireland
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Memorial windows in Ottawa and Ypres and work at An Túr Gloine
Why this life matters
Her work joins individual design with the cooperative and architectural circumstances of stained-glass production, particularly in memorial commissions.
Timeline
Key moments
An Túr Gloine
Geddes entered Purser’s Dublin studio.
Ottawa memorial
A major international commission attracted attention.
Ypres unveiling
The Te Deum rose window entered public life.
Posthumous completion
Charles Blakeman completed her last window design.
Training in Belfast and Dublin
Wilhelmina Geddes was born in County Leitrim in 1887 and grew up in Belfast. Study at Belfast School of Art developed her drawing, watercolour and design. Sarah Purser encountered her work and encouraged her towards stained glass. Geddes joined An Túr Gloine in 1912. The move into glass did not remove drawing from her practice: planning figures, colour and the relationships between pieces remained essential to the final architectural image.
A growing international practice
Church commissions followed, including work in Dublin and a major First World War memorial window for St Bartholomew’s in Ottawa. The latter was installed in 1919 after attracting attention while shown in London. A memorial commission brings several relationships together: an artist’s design, a patron’s purpose, a congregation’s use and the histories of the people commemorated. Geddes’s forceful figures worked within those circumstances rather than functioning only as detached gallery images. She also designed embroidery executed by her sister Ethel, showing that work across media could involve explicitly shared labour. Design and the making of a final object did not always belong to one person.
London and the Ypres commission
Geddes later worked at Lowndes and Drury’s Glass House in London, another important studio environment. Her largest commission was the Te Deum rose window for St Martin’s at Ypres, completed in the 1930s and unveiled in 1938. It joined a religious subject with a memorial to King Albert I of Belgium. This international project also placed her design within a restored building and the wider remembrance of the First World War.
Design, execution and a posthumous window
Geddes continued working despite ill health and died in London in 1955. Her final design, Faith, Hope and Charity for St Paul’s, Battersea, was completed in 1956 by Charles Blakeman; the Stained Glass Museum acquired it in 2022. That distinction between the designer’s work and later completion is part of an accurate career account. Her legacy lies in the images themselves and in a wider history of professional women, cooperative studios and major public commissions. Later collecting and scholarship make those working relationships visible again without requiring every object to have been finished by her own hand.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Wilhelmina Geddes
- Was Wilhelmina Geddes a member of An Túr Gloine?
- Yes. The DIB records her joining in 1912.
- Did she complete the 1956 Faith, Hope and Charity window herself?
- No. She died in 1955; Charles Blakeman completed the window from her design.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Sarah Purser
Read the career of the studio organiser who encouraged Geddes and founded An Túr Gloine.
- Evie Hone
Compare a distinct international stained-glass commission from an Irish artist.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Dictionary of Irish BiographyGeddes, Wilhelmina Margaret
DIB gives 1934 for commission while the BSMGP review uses 1935–38 and the local inventory discusses 1935. The guide uses the 1930s with a firm 1938 unveiling date.
- 2. British Society of Master Glass PaintersLecture review: Nicola Gordon Bowe on Geddes
- 3. Flemish Heritage AgencySint-Maarten memorial inventory
- 4. The Stained Glass MuseumFaith, Hope and Charity acquisition
- 5. The Stained Glass MuseumGlossary of stained-glass terms