A POWERHOUSE OF THE SPIRIT, the life and art of Sister Margaret Watson of Grahamstown

254pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, NISC, Makhanda, 2024

ISBN: 9781991458070

In 1907 Margaret Watson (1879-1964), the daughter of a clergyman, left her middle-class home in Cambridge, England, to join an Anglican sisterhood, the Community of the Resurrection of Our Lord, in Grahamstown (now Makhanda). The nuns were committed to educational and caring work among young people of all races and built a network of schools, orphanages and homes across Southern Africa. Sister Margaret also worked as a painter, completing murals for the Chapel of the Training College which the Sisters established in Grahamstown, and for the Anglican church of St Augustine’s in Zululand. She also painted St. Francis on the Johannesburg mine dumps and Mary, mother of Jesus, amongst the people of Sophiatown for the Church of Christ the King in Sophiatown.

“When I joined the community as a postulant on Ash Wednesday in 1962 and went into the chapel, I remember Sister Margaret’s little form all in black except for the white collar everyone wore in those days. She would be walking up to the altar to refresh the six vases of flowers on the reredos.  We all knew about her work as an artist and greatly respected her. I am pleased that Sister Margaret’s story has been told in full after all these years”.  Sister Carol CR, Community of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Superior 1998-2005

William Barham is the author of Forty Years a Potter, a biography of potter Dorothy Watson, Margaret Watson's younger sister. He lives in Kent.