Tributes to Bury St Edmunds artist and rebel Gilly Szego

Many from the Bury St Edmunds area will remember Gilly fondly, for she ran John Seago Silversmiths in Guildhall Street with her husband for several decades. 

Generations of Bury St Edmunds schoolchildren, too, will remember attending the art and theatre workshops Gilly gave at schools around the area. 

Gillian Roscow, as she was then, was born in Elham in Kent on September 4, 1932, one of two daughters born to Walter and Helen Roscow. 

“Gilly didn’t like doing things in the way that everyone expected her to,” explained her grandson, Calum Roscow. 

“Her parents were keen for her to be presented at Buckingham Palace as a debutante, like her sister, Pamela, but she wasn’t interested in that at all.” 

Gily Szego (centre) pictured with her mother Helen (left) and a family friend. Picture: Family of Gilly Szego (Image: Family of Gilly Szego)

Gilly Szego was an immensely kind woman, who spent many years volunteering for St Nicholas Hospice in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: Calum Roscow (Image: Calum Roscow)

Instead, the free-spirited Gilly wanted to go to art school. She had spent long summers in Norfolk with her grandmother, Margaret, who had longed to be an artist herself.  

It was here that the young Gilly began to paint, and she was determined that her ambitions would not be thwarted. 

After several attempts to get expelled from finishing school, Gilly’s father gave his blessing for her to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London, aged 16. 

“In her words, it was the safest and most traditional of all the art schools, which was the only reason her parents said she could go!” explained Calum. 

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In 1951, Gilly met the architect, Holwell ‘Peter’ Bender, after being introduced by an aunt. The pair married and went on to have two sons, Allan and Guy. 

In a sign of the times, Gilly’s earliest large-scale work was the Television Pavilion mural for the Festival of Britain in 1951. However, the mural was credited only to her husband – despite Gilly spending days scaling newly-constructed buildings herself, wrapped in a fur coat. 

In 1956, Gilly met her second husband, John Szego. John was a Hungarian refugee, having fled his homeland after it was invaded by Russia. His experiences would have a profound influence over Gilly’s art. 

Gilly and John pictured on their wedding day. Picture: Family of Gilly Szego (Image: Family of Gilly Szego)

Gilly pictured with her husband John Szego. Picture: Family of Gilly Szego (Image: Family of Gilly Szego)

Gilly Szego would tackle serious human rights issues in her art, but she was also inspired by the world around her Suffolk home. Picture: Calum Roscow (Image: Calum Roscow)

Gilly and John quickly fell in love, and were married later that year. They would welcome two more children together, Tim and Charlotte.  

By the mid-1980s, John and Gilly were keen to move out of London. 

So it was that they arrived in Bury St Edmunds. The couple made their home in Guildhall Street, and opened John Seago Silversmiths in 1985, where they sold handmade jewellery (Seago being the anglicised spelling of Szego). 

“I think she enjoyed that they didn’t quite fit into Bury St Edmunds,” explained Calum. “She was always surprising people. There she was, an artist with a Hungarian refugee husband, with most of her work was about human rights abuses.” 

In fact, when the residents of Bury St Edmunds got to know Gilly, Calum said they learned that she was an immensely kind woman, with a great sense of humour. 

Gilly spent many years giving back to Bury St Edmunds. She volunteered at St Mary’s Church on Honey Hill for more than 30 years, as well as for St Nicholas Hospice. Here, Calum explained, she would sometimes offer art therapy to the patients.  

Gilly also worked hard to raise money for amnesty branches and ActionAid, for she cared passionately about human rights. 

She also continued to paint and exhibit her work, with her final exhibition being held at the Protein Studios in Shoreditch in 2017. 

Gilly Mary Szego died on March 20, 2023. She is survived by three of her four children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

A funeral will be held at St Andrew’s Church, Hempstead, NR12 0SH, at 1pm on April 17.

To read more tributes to those we have loved and lost in Suffolk, visit: www.eadt.co.uk/news/obituaries