Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson was born at Swadlincote in Derbyshire on 26 September 1848. She was the eldest of seven children born to the physician Dr Alexander Henry Paterson and Mary Chance Herford, daughter of a Manchester wine merchant. Within the first year of her life, the Patersons moved to Altrincham, Cheshire, where Helen’s father set up a medical practice and the young family prospered. It was during those years that young Helen’s interest in art blossomed, inspired by her maternal grandmother Sarah Smith Herford, and especially her aunt Laura Herford, both accomplished artists. At age of 13, Helen’s carefree existence was shattered by the death of her father. While battling to treat local victims during a severe diphtheria epidemic, he succumbed to the disease in May 1862, along with Helen’s three year-old sister Isabel. The family moved shortly thereafter to Birmingham where their Paterson aunts helped provide for them. As Helen’s artistic talents continued to grow, she enrolled in the Birmingham School of Design and at the age of 17, secured a place in the Royal Female School of Art in London. A year later in 1867, she was accepted at her first attempt to enrol in the Royal Academy Schools, a door first opened to women by her aunt Laura, just a few years before. The Schools attracted many visiting masters, and Helen was influenced by the teachings of Frederick Walker, Sir Frederick Leighton, and Sir John Everett Millais. Tuition at the RA was free, but Helen still needed income to cover her accommodation and expenses. She sought work with engraving firms, sketching figures and scenes in black & white, and in 1869 was commissioned by Once A Week magazine for four full-page illustrations. Her work was well-received, leading to more commissions by other periodicals and children’s books, while she continued her schooling three days a week. In 1870 she was hired as one of the founding staff members – and the only woman – on The Graphic, one of a new breed of large-scale, high-quality illustrated weekly magazines. Commissions to illustrate books and periodicals continued to arrive and by 1872, she ceased lessons at the RA and earned a living as a commercial artist. Her commissions included illustrations for Thomas Harding’s novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, and for a series of girl’s novels by Juliana Ewing including Six to Sixteen: a Story for Girls (1876), Happy England (1903), A Flat Iron for a Farthing and The homes of Tennyson (1905), written with her brother Arthur Paterson. She enrolled for evening classes at the Slade and worked alongside Kate Greenaway, with whom she became a life long friend. Helen’s work brought her into contact with many of London’s prominent writers and artists, and her path crossed that of the Irish poet and editor of Fraser’s Magazine, William Allingham. They married on 22 August 1874. Born at Ballyshannon in Ireland, Allingham was nearly twice Helen’s age at the time of their marriage. Their happy union would produce two sons and a daughter. He was a well-established figure in London’s literary circles and was friends with Carlyle, Tennyson, Browning, Ruskin and Rossetti. The newly weds took residence in Chelsea, to be near the octogenarian philosopher Thomas Carlyle. Freed from the need to earn a living, Helen left her job at The Graphic and turned to watercolours. Two of her paintings, The Milkmaid and Wait For Me, were accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1874 and sold, bringing her further commissions. With the sponsorship of the eminent watercolourist Alfred Hunt, she achieved the honour of associate status in the Royal Watercolour Society in 1875, and later became the first woman to be admitted to full membership. As well as landscapes, she painted several portraits, including one of Carlyle. With the death of Carlyle in 1881, the family left London and moved to a small hamlet called Sandhills near Witley in Surrey. It was here that Allingham established her fame and reputation for painting the countryside, flower gardens, her children old picturesque cottages and rural scenes, particularly her charming views of Surrey and Sussex. She died on 28 September 1926, at the age of 78, of a sudden illness, while visiting an old friend at Valewood House in Haslemere. The Helen Allingham Society was founded in 2000. A detailed account of her life and work may be found in Ina Taylor’s 1990 biography Helen Allingham’s England.