Marjorie Christine Bates was a painter and draughtsman, born in King’s Newton, Derbyshire in 1886. Her family moved to Nottingham where she studied at the School of Art, 1902–13. She then travelled on the continent, where she had tuition from J P Laurens, in Paris. Most of her life was spent in Nottingham, although she travelled widely in Great Britain, drawing cottages and churches, reproduced as Christmas cards and calendars. She showed at the Royal Academy, in provinces and at the Paris Salon and was a regular exhibitor at Nottingham Castle Museum, which holds her work.