The Back Story of Humphry and Marcia

A while back, wandering around Bloomsbury on a sunny afternoon, I came across this sculpture in a children’s playground.

Humphry the Cat

The plinth gave the cat’s name as Humphry, and the artist as Marcia Debra Solway. I looked about wondering if there was more information about why he was there, took a couple more photos, and made a mental note to look into it later.

Today, I found the answer. It was on Flick’r with some photos of the sculpture.

“MARCIA SOLWAY was my daughter, she made this sculpture of HUMPHRY. He was the resident cat for 18 years at the Mary Ward Centre in Queen Square WCI, where Marcia was a student of Sculpture. HUMPHRY was a ginger Tom, this area would of been his “hunting ground”. He was a champion mouser!
HUMPHRY was named after the founder of the Mary Ward Centre. The cat was cared for by RICHARD, who would feed him even when the centre was closed. When Richard died a wreath of flowers was placed around HUMPHRY’S neck, because Richard and Humphry were “best friends”.
Humphry was originally unveiled in Queen Square Garden WCI, but was resited into the children’s playground Old Gloucester St. WCI where he is much happier! The children love him, even drawing on him giving him “eyes and whiskers”. The playground is used by local children and children from Great Ormond St. hospital which is just around the corner.
MARCIA suffered with EPILEPSY and was a patient of the National Hospital Queen Square, she died aged 34 years August 1992, the same year as HUMPHRY. MARCIA lived in Rosebery Ave ECI, she was an ardent cat lover.”

What a sweet and sad tale.

Oh His Paws and Whiskers

I am very glad I finally got around to seeing if I could find out about him.

Now I should like to know about this bit of graffiti that is just across the road from the playground. Given what I have just learned, it would be nice if it represented someone’s lightbulb moment.

Light Bulb Graffiti