Mrs. Patrick Ness

Last updated

Elizabeth Wilhelmina Ness, who wrote as Mrs Patrick Ness or E. Wilhelmina Ness (1881-1962) was an English traveller. She was the first female Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), and the first woman to be elected to the RGS Council. In 1953 she endowed an annual award to encourage travel, the Ness Award. [1]

Contents

Life

Elizabeth Wilhelmina Miller was the daughter of William Miller of Brighton. In 1903 she married Patrick Powell Ness, son of Patrick Ness of Braco Castle in Perthshire. [2]

In 1913 she was the first woman to ride from Nairobi to Embra. [3]

Ness's husband died suddenly at sea on 19 April 1914, [4] leaving her an independently wealthy widow. In 1920 Ness applied to Arthur Hinks at the RGS, asking for a letter of introduction to help her in her trip to South America. Hinks refused, saying that the RGS "does not give general letters of introduction to a Fellow unless that Fellow is travelling on some mission directly for the Society." However, Hicks wrote to individual RGS Fellows on Ness's behalf, requesting letters of introduction from them. For example, he wrote to Maurice de Bunsen, advising that Bunsen "might have every confidence" in Ness since "she is, at any rate, particularly nice looking". [5]

In 1923 she crossed the Syrian Desert, from Beirut to Damascus and then on to Baghdad, Tehran and the Caspian Sea. In 1927 she travelled from the North to the South of Africa. She went from Khartoum to Nairobi, and then through Entebbe and Southern Uganda to the Belgian Congo. She proceeded to the Rwanda Hills and Urundi to Elisabethville and on to the Cape of Good Hope. Along the way she became the first woman to travel Lake Kivu, with a fleet of fur canoes and 32 paddlers. [3]

In 1929 Ness published an account of her travels, Ten Thousand Miles in Two Continents. In 1930 Ness became the first woman to serve on the Council of the RGS. [5] In 1941, and again from 1943 to 1945, Ness was elected president of the National Council of Women. She also became honorary treasurer of the International Council of Women. [1]

Ness donated significant sums to the RGS for expeditionary work. [5] In 1953 she endowed an annual award to encourage travel, the Mrs. Patrick Ness Award. [1] In 1954 Mount Ness in the Antarctic was named after her, in honour of her financial support for the British Graham Land expedition. [6]

Ness died on Easter Sunday, 1962. [3]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Geographical Society</span> British learned society

The Royal Geographical Society with IBG, often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences, the Society has 16,000 members, with its work reaching the public through publications, research groups and lectures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clements Markham</span> British geographer (1830–1916)

Sir Clements Robert Markham was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society's president for a further 12 years. In the latter capacity he was mainly responsible for organising the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904, and for launching the polar career of Robert Falcon Scott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie Ronne</span> American explorer (1919–2009)

Jackie Ronne was an American explorer of Antarctica and the first woman in the world to be a working member of an Antarctic expedition (1947–48). She is also the namesake of the Ronne Ice Shelf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Kingsley</span> English ethnographer, scientific writer and explorer

Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an English ethnographer, scientific writer, and explorer whose travels throughout West Africa and resulting work helped shape European perceptions of both African cultures and British colonialism in Africa.

Dame Ruth Nita Barrow, GCMG DA was the first female governor-general of Barbados. Barrow was a nurse and a public health servant from Barbados. She served as the fifth governor-general of Barbados from 6 June 1990 until her death on 19 December 1995. She was the older sister of Errol Barrow, the first prime minister of Barbados.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Jamie</span> Scottish poet and essayist

Kathleen Jamie FRSL is a Scottish poet and essayist. In 2021 she became Scotland's fourth Makar.

Mariana Starke (1761/2–1838) was an English author. She is best known for her travel guide to France and Italy which served as a popular companion for British travellers to the Continent in the early nineteenth century. She also wrote plays and poetry early in her career but was discouraged by harsh reviews. She was unmarried but sometimes referred to as Mrs. Starke, as was common at the time.

Women in geology concerns the history and contributions of women to the field of geology. There has been a long history of women in the field, but they have tended to be under-represented. In the era before the eighteenth century, science and geological science had not been as formalized as they would become later. Hence early geologists tended to be informal observers and collectors, whether they were male or female. Notable examples of this period include Hildegard of Bingen who wrote works concerning stones and Barbara Uthmann who supervised her husband's mining operations after his death. Mrs. Uthmann was also a relative of Georg Agricola. In addition to these names varied aristocratic women had scientific collections of rocks or minerals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Kenyatta (mayor)</span> Kenyan politician

Margaret Wambui Kenyatta was a Kenyan politician. She was the daughter of the first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, and his wife Grace Wahu. She served as the Mayor of Nairobi from 1970 to 1976 and as Kenya's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1976 to 1986. She was thereafter appointed as a Commissioner with the Electoral Commission of Kenya from 1992 to 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erica Mann</span> Austrian-born urban planner, active in Kenya

Erica Mann was an architect and town planner who lived and worked in Kenya for almost all her adult life, after fleeing her home in Romania during the Second World War. She made a significant contribution to the 1948 master plan for Nairobi and also took a leading role in planning Mombasa and other parts of Kenya. She became interested in development projects seeking to improve living standards and was director of the "Women in Kibwezi" project, which was recognised at the United Nations Habitat II conference in 1996. The "Woman in Kibwezi" project was but one of several NGOs she headed across Kenya, many of them engaged in fostering women's cooperatives. In 2003 she was honoured with the title of Architect Laureate for Kenya.

<i>Southern Cross</i> Expedition 1898–1900 research expedition to Antarctica

The Southern CrossExpedition, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. The brainchild of the Anglo-Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink, it was the first expedition to over-winter on the Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier—later known as the Ross Ice Shelf—since Sir James Clark Ross's groundbreaking expedition of 1839 to 1843, and the first to effect a landing on the Barrier's surface. It also pioneered the use of dogs and sledges in Antarctic travel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felicity Aston</span> British adventurer/climate scientist

Felicity Ann Dawn Aston is a British explorer, author and former climate scientist.

The Ness Award is an annual award of the Royal Geographical Society to travellers, particularly those who have successfully popularised Geography and the wider understanding of our world and its environments. It was established in 1953 and named after Mrs Patrick Ness (1881–1962), an intrepid and well-to-do traveller throughout Africa and the first female Fellow of the Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelmina Hay Abbott</span> Scottish suffragist, editor and feminist lecturer

Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, also known by the name "Elizabeth Abbott," was a Scottish suffragist, editor, and feminist lecturer, and wife of author George Frederick Abbott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Council of Women of Great Britain</span>

The National Council of Women exists to co-ordinate the voluntary efforts of women across Great Britain. Founded as the National Union of Women Workers, it said that it would "promote sympathy of thought and purpose among the women of Great Britain and Ireland".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Antarctica</span> Women in Antarctica

There may have been women in Antarctica and exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. Oral tradition of Māori explorers reaching Antarctic waters as early as 650 CE, put women on the Antarctic map. The most celebrated "first" for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of women in Antarctica</span>

This is a Timeline ofwomen in Antarctica. This article describes many of the firsts and accomplishments that women from various countries have accomplished in different fields of endeavor on the continent of Antarctica.

Isabella Tree, Lady Burrell is a British author and travel journalist. She is author of the Richard Jefferies Society Literature Award-winning book Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm that describes the creation of Knepp Wildland, the first large-scale rewilding project in lowland England. The 3,500 acres (1,400 ha) wildland project was created in the grounds of Knepp Castle, the ancestral home of her husband, Sir Charles Burrell, a landowner and conservationist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel Bent</span>

Mabel Virginia Anna Bent, was an Anglo-Irish explorer, excavator, writer and photographer. With her husband, J. Theodore Bent (1852–1897), she spent two decades (1877–1897) travelling, collecting and researching in remote regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Africa, and Arabia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Bourbonnaud</span> French philanthropist, explorer, writer

Louise Cosseron Bourbonnaud was born in Paris and was a French writer, explorer and philanthropist. who helped found the Relief Society for the Wounded of the Land and Sea Armies, which went on to become the French Red Cross. She also contributed to hospitals and a nursery in Paris.

References

  1. 1 2 3 H. F. S, 'Mrs. Patrick Ness: A Fearless Traveller', The Times, 3 May 1962.
  2. ↑ 'Marriages', The Times, 15 June 1903, p.1.
  3. 1 2 3 c.p (1962). "Mrs. Patrick Ness". African Affairs. 61 (244): 234–235. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a095001.[ dead link ]
  4. ↑ 'Deaths', The Times, 23 April 1914, p.1.
  5. 1 2 3 Sarah L Evans (2016). "Mapping Terra Incognita: Women's Participation in Royal Geographical Society-Supported Expeditions 1913-1939". Historical Geography. 44: 30–44.
  6. ↑ Fred G. Alberts (1995). "Ness, Mount". Geographic Names of the Antarctic. National Science Foundation. p. 522.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.