Gotch was an author and campaigner, born in 1882 in Brolles, near Paris, France. Baptised in Newlyn in 1892, her parents were the Newlyn artists Caroline Burland Yates and Thomas Cooper Gotch.
She grew up in the affectionate and loving circle of her family and their artist friends in Newlyn, Lamorna, and Falmouth. She loved dressing up and organising all manner of entertainments and parties. She married Ernest Doherty in 1913, who died in South Africa in 1918, leaving Phyllis and their daughter Patsy to return to live with her parents. She then married Andre, Marquis de Verdiere in 1922, who she divorced in 1935, before lastly marrying Jocelyn Bodilly, grandson of the artist Frank Bodilly, in 1936.
The Bodillys returned to live in Newlyn, where the ‘Marquise’, as she was known, became active socially and politically, leading protests against the re-development of Newlyn after WWII, and famously sailing to Westminster Docks in support of retaining historic Newlyn harbour. As Laura Knight commented in her own memoirs, it was impossible to resist Phyllis: ‘had she been a General she could have led millions to death and glory for a hopeless cause.’ (Knight, L. (1941) Oil Paint and Grease Paint, 178).
Gotch was the author of several books for children, the editor for the Penzance Church of England High School, and the Old Girls’ Club magazine Merry Maidens.
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