Hannah Wyatt

Mrs Hannah Wyatt (1830-1906) gave a magnificent altar frontal to Westminster Abbey. She is not buried at the Abbey. The frontal of rich white silk divided into three panels shows a medallion of the Transfiguration in the centre (with Christ depicted on a mountain side flanked by Moses and Elijah with Sts Peter, James and John kneeling below) flanked by hosts of angels looking towards the main scene. It took Mrs Wyatt eight years to complete and was given by her son and daughter and first used on Easter Day 1905. It measures 135 x 39 inches. Mrs Wyatt, who was also a composer, painter and carver also designed frontals for Winchester cathedral, Chichester and Oxford. These places all had associations with her family (husband John served in a parish in the diocese of Winchester and had previously lived in Chichester diocese and her sons and grandsons were at Oxford university). The frontal is used occasionally on the High Altar and has been repaired in recent years by the Abbey's team of needlewomen.