Ursula Mommens

Who was Ursula Mommens?

Ursula Frances Elinor Mommens was a British potter. Mommens studied at the Royal College of Art, under William Staite Murray, and later worked with Michael Cardew at Winchcombe Pottery and Wenford Bridge Pottery.

She was the daughter of Bernard Darwin and his wife the engraver Elinor Monsell. Her brother was Sir Robert Vere Darwin. She was the great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin and the great-great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood.

She married first Julian Trevelyan; their son is the film-maker Philip Trevelyan. Her second husband was Norman Mommens.

Mommens lived and worked in South Heighton East Sussex, making both wood and gas-fired functional stoneware using a clay body she developed herself with ash glazes. She lived to the age of 101.