Phyllis Archibald was born in
Tunbridge Wells. Her father, Edmund Douglas Archibald, 1851–1913, was a meteorologist and a Professor of Mathematics and by 1891 the family were living in her mother's native Scotland. Phyllis Archibald was educated at the Park School in Glasgow and then studied at the
Glasgow School of Art from 1903 to 1906 before spending several years studying sculpture in Paris. Before World War I began, Archibald moved to London where she established herself as a sculptor of animals and portrait figures, working in wood, stone and with a variety of metals. In 1911 Archibald married the journalist Charles Clay, 1856–1941, and the couple lived at
Hampstead in London then at
Bletchingley in Surrey before, as a widow, she moved to
Grasmere where she died in 1947. == Awards and exhibitions ==