Mervyn o gorman biography sampler

A century after being photographed, she caught the attention of social media and the world’s press—but only now do we know who Christina really was.

100-year-old images of a girl in red, taken by Lieutenant Colonel Mervyn O’Gorman at Lulworth Cove in 1913, went down a storm on social media and even caught the attention of the world’s press.

Some said that the photos looked almost contemporary; others called her ‘a Flickr pin-up for the 20th century’.

One question remained: who was Christina, the star model in the captivating images on show in our Drawn by Light exhibition?

Initially, she was thought to be the daughter of O’Gorman, the amateur photographer who took the photographs. But research showed he had no children, meaning her true identity remained unknown—until now.

As a result of seeing the images in a newspaper, retired technician Stephen Riddle contacted our curator of Photographs and Photographi