Beatrice Grimshaw
Beatrice Ethel Grimshaw (3 February 1870 – 30 June 1953) was a writer and traveller of Irish origin, for many years based in Papua New Guinea.
Life
She was born in Cloona House[1] in Dunmurry, County Antrim, Ireland into a well-to-do family. She was educated privately, at Victoria College, Belfast, in Caen, France, then Bedford College, London and Queen's College, Belfast and never graduated,[2] though it was later claimed she had been a lecturer in Classics at Bedford Women's College.[3] Her family were members of the Church of Ireland, but she converted to Catholicism after leaving home.
She worked for various shipping companies and then as a freelance journalist in Dublin. After contacting Richard J. Mecredy, the proprietor of the Dublin-based Irish Cyclist, in 1891 expressing her interest in cycling and journalism, she became a contributor to the magazine. Two years later she became sub-editor, and then took over the magazine's sister publication, the Social Review, which she edited until 1903.[4] But she had long harboured a desire to see the Pacific, and in 1904 she was engaged by the (London) Daily Graphic to report on the Pacific islands,[2] reportedly sailing around the Pacific islands in her own cutter.[3] She was commissioned to write publicity for Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga.[2] In 1907 she sailed to Papua on a commission from The Times and the Sydney Morning Herald,[2] but remained for twenty-seven years, much of the time at Rona Falls.[5] She became a close friend of Sir Hubert Murray and his unofficial publicist. She joined exploration parties and managed plantations, including one with her brother Ramsay.[2]
She also corresponded with Alfred Deakin- Australia's second, fifth and seventh Prime Minister regarding her work in the pacific.
In 1936, in company with brothers Ramsay and Osborne[2] she retired to Kelso, New South Wales, where she remained for the rest of her life.
Films
- The Adorable Outcast (1928) was based on her 1922 novel Conn of the Coral Seas [6]
Publications
She wrote some 46 books, all out of print, including:
- Broken Away (1897)[2]
- Vaiti of the Islands (1907) a novel
- From Fiji to the Cannibal Islands (1907)
- In the Strange South Seas (1908)
- The New New Guinea (1910)
- When the Red Gods Call (1911) her best known novel
- The Sorcerer's Stone (1914) (ASIN: B009NNHHTM)
- Coral Queen (1919)
- White Savage Simon (1919)
- Queen Vaiti New South Wales Bookstall Co. Ltd., 1920
- The Little Red Speck (short stories) Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., Melbourne, 1922[7]
- The Sands of Oro
- Conn of the Coral Seas Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., Melbourne, 1922[8]
- The Candles of Katara (1925 short stories)[9]
- Isles of Adventure (1930) about her own travels
Sources
- The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (2nd ed.) Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1994
References
- ↑ http://www.iguidez.com/video/guides/belfast/cloona-house-oasis-center/
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Laracy, Hugh, 'Grimshaw, Beatrice Ethel (1870–1953)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/grimshaw-beatrice-ethel-6494/text11135, accessed 28 April 2012.
- 1 2 "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939). Brisbane, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 22 October 1921. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- ↑ Grimshaw, Beatrice (1930). Isles of Adventure. London: Herbert Jenkins.
- ↑ "Miss Beatrice Grimshaw". Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954). Qld.: National Library of Australia. 25 June 1925. p. 4. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ↑ Beatrice Grimshaw at Internet Movie Database
- ↑ "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939). Brisbane, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 4 March 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- ↑ "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939). Brisbane, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 29 July 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- ↑ "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939). Brisbane, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 18 July 1925. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beatrice Grimshaw. |
- Works by or about Beatrice Grimshaw at Internet Archive
- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- Beatrice Grimshaw, South Pacific Adventurer, Travel Writer and Novelist
- Evaluations of the Work of Beatrice Grimshaw by Academic Analysts
- Brief autobiography
- 7 Letters to Alfred Deakin - Australian Prime Minister