Photograph of "Tommy" the owl

This image is from a photograph album belonging to Monica Peveril Turnbull of the Peveril Turnbull family of Sandybrook Hall in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It features a photograph of the family's pet owl Tommy.

Monica Peveril Turnbull was the elder daughter of Peveril Turnbull of Sandybrook Hall. At the age of 22 both she and her younger sister Dorothea died from their injuries received in a fire at their home in February 1901. Her father was instrumental in the posthumous publication of her original poetry, translations of Heinrich Heine's poetry and essays on aspects of Shakespearean tragedy. The book A Short Day's Work first appeared in 1902, and was re-published in further editions in 1906, 1913 and 1924.