Martha Howell Bennett Combe (née Edwards; 1806 - 27 December 1893) was a British art collector who was influential in supporting and promoting the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
These included A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids by William Holman Hunt in 1850, The Return of the Dove to the Ark by Millais in 1851 and Collins' Convent Thoughts the same year.
[1] After Thomas Combe died in October 1872, Martha bequeathed most of the paintings to Oxford University who placed them with the Ashmolean Museum.
[1] She continued to collect, for example buying Hunt's London Bridge by Night, and made further donations, most notably giving The Light of the World to Keble College.
Martha Combe died in 1893 and is buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery in Oxford beside her husband.