Marguerite Kirmse

[2] Marguerite was born in Bournemouth, then in Hampshire, the second daughter of Richard and Lea Kirmse, respectively of German and Swiss origin, proprietors of a private school.

She was the younger sister of the artist Persis Kirmse, who similarly specialised in dogs and cats.

[3] Marguerite first trained as a harpist at the Royal Academy of Music but spent much of her spare time drawing animals.

[4] She was not successful in advancing her musical career and focussed her attention increasingly on her animal drawing, which she developed by frequent sketching trips to the Bronx Zoo.

[1] In 1924 she married George C. Cole, with whom she ran the Tobermory kennels near Bridgewater, Connecticut.