Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed (26 June 1860 – 27 July 1934),
usually known after her third marriage as Mrs Aubrey Le Blond and to her climbing friends as Lizzie Le Blond,
was an Irish pioneer of
mountaineering at a time when it was almost unheard of for a woman to climb mountains. She was also an author and a photographer of mountain scenery.
She came from an upper-class background, being the daughter of Captain Sir St Vincent Hawkins-Whitshed, 3rd Baronet (1837–1871) (see
Hawkins-Whitshed baronets) by his wife Anne Alicia (''née'' Handcock) (1837–1908), and further back was descended from the aristocratic
Bentinck family, and was therefore related to the
Dukes of Portland
Earl of Portland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England, firstly in 1633 and secondly in 1689. What proved to be a long co-held title, Duke of Portland, was created in 1716 and became extinct in 1990 upon the death of t ...
.
She grew up in
Greystones
Greystones () is a coastal town and seaside resort in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies on Ireland's east coast, south of Bray and south of Dublin city centre and has a population of 18,140 (2016). The town is bordered by the Irish Sea to ...
,
County Wicklow, in the south-east of Ireland, where her father owned quite a bit of land. However, her father then died, leaving no other children, while she was still a minor, and the
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
took her on as his
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
.
Elizabeth moved to Switzerland, where she climbed mountains and has since become well known for photos showing her climbing in a skirt
In 1907, she took the lead in forming the
Ladies' Alpine Club and became its first president. She wrote seven books on mountain climbing and over her lifetime made twenty
first ascent
In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...
s, conquering peaks that no one had climbed before.
As Mrs Aubrey Le Blond she made at least ten films of alpine activities in the
Engadine Valley
The Engadin or Engadine ( rm, ;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it is '' ...
of Switzerland, including
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
at
St Moritz
St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...
and
tobogganing
A toboggan is a simple sled traditionally used by children. It is also a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada.
In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people (often children) down a hill ...
on the
Cresta Run
The Cresta Run is a natural ice skeleton racing toboggan track in eastern Switzerland. Located in the winter sports town of St. Moritz, the run is one of the few in the world dedicated entirely to skeleton. It was built in 1884 near the haml ...
. She is probably among the world's first three female film-makers, after
Alice Guy
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
and contemporary with
Laura Bayley
Laura may refer to:
People
* Laura (given name)
* Laura, the British code name for the World War I Belgian spy Marthe Cnockaert
Places Australia
* Laura, Queensland, a town on the Cape York Peninsula
* Laura, South Australia
* Laura Bay, a ba ...
. Her films were shown by
James Williamson at
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...
Town Hall in November 1900, being included in his catalogue in 1902, and were praised by the film pioneer
Cecil Hepworth and the writer
E. F. Benson.
She married three times: firstly, in 1879, to
Frederick Burnaby (1842–1885); secondly, in 1886, to John Frederick Main (died 1892); and thirdly, in 1900, to Francis Bernard Aubrey Le Blond.
From her first marriage, she had a son Harry Burnaby, in 1880. Despite her second and third marriages, the lands at Greystones that she had inherited from her father (before marriage) were to be known as the Burnaby Estate. This part of Greystones (The Burnaby) was developed after 1900. It includes Burnaby Road, Somerby Road, as well as Whitshed, St. Vincent's, and Portland Roads, and Hawkins Lane. She published accounts of her climbing under the names Mrs. Fred Burnaby, Mrs. Main, and Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond.
She published her autobiography ''Day In, Day Out'' in 1928.
Personal life
Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed was born in Dublin on 26 June 1860. She was the daughter of Captain Vincent Hawkins-Whitshed and Mrs. Anne Hawkins-Whitshed
who raised her in Killincarrick House, Greystones, Co. Wicklow.
Elizabeth's childhood was said to be happy in the countryside with a devoted mother, but her father died in 1871 leaving her inherited Killincarrick House along with nearly 2,000 acres of land spreading across Dublin, Meath and Wicklow at the age of eleven years.
Elizabeth could claim kinship with royalty and aristocracy in Europe through her Bentick great grandmother and at the age of eighteen she joined London society and married her first husband Captain Fred Burnaby,
a British Army intelligence officer, in 1879. She gave birth to her son Harry Burnaby
in 1880. A few months after the birth, she and her husband began leading primarily separate lives until his death in the battle of Sudan on 17 January 1885.
In the time leading up to his death, Elizabeth had been spending her time searching for a cure to the lung difficulty she was experiencing.
In 1881 she moved to Switzerland.
In 1886, Elizabeth married her second husband John Frederick Main.
The marriage was short lived when he died alone in North America in 1892.
In 1900 she married her third husband, Aubrey Le Blond.
She died on 27 July 1934, and was buried at Brompton cemetery in London.
Authorship
Elizabeth wrote her books under both her former name, Elizabeth Hawkins Whitshed and her latter name of Aubrey Le Blond. She took great joy in the authorship of her books along with her love of photography alike. Her first book was published in 1883, The High Alps of Winter, the precursor to a series of books and articles describing her mountaineering experiences. However, she would later decide to turn her hand to fiction, travel writing and family history. Although her talent for writing books was evident, she was most fond of photography, carrying her camera on her shoulder everywhere she went. Between her most widely known hobbies of mountaineering, photography and writing books, there are currently 69 works in 220 publications in 3 languages and 2,228 library holdings known, worldwide.
Mountaineering
Abandoning conventional mid 1880s London lifestyle, Mrs. Hawkins ended up in Chamonix where her first climb was making two thirds up of the way up Mont Blanc.
She is known now for the photos of her climbing a skirt, however she would change when out of public sight to avoid causing offence.
The interior of her tent at the bottom of most mountains she climbed gave us an idea of her social status: nice clothing, a comfortable bed, drapes, and her own elaborate toilette can be found inside. Her health declined due to trouble in her lungs, but that did not prevent her from going on expeditions. On the contrary, her time spent abroad was also used in search for a cure, and this activity pushed her to better herself.
In the summer of 1881, she moved to Switzerland at the heart of European mountaineering. During that summer, Hawkins scaled the Mont Blanc twice and several other difficult peaks in Switzerland within twenty years. Further down her career, Elizabeth abandoned Switzerland for
Lapland and Norway. Spending six consecutive summers in the Norwegian Arctic shined light on uncharted territory. This led to Hawkins completing over one hundred ascents, twenty of which were first ascents.
During her expeditions. however, Hawkins would take advantage of her wealth and social status by being accompanied by personal staff. To prove how dangerous the conditions can get during ascents, Elizabeth's personal maid once had to be carried out their carriage when it was completely covered in ice.
In 1907, Hawkins set up and became the first president of the Ladies Alpine Club.
She showed great courage and provided inspiration to future generations for females taking part in activities deemed masculine.
Photography
![Elizabeth Main Skating on the lake of Sils](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Elizabeth_Main_Skating_on_the_lake_of_Sils.png)
Almost from the beginning of her climbing career Elizabeth carried her camera with her, capturing views which had never been seen before
she also took up photography and was an early adopter of snow photography
Over the years she took thousands of photographs, about four hundred of which were included in various publications,
Including ''Water, its Origin and Use'' by
William Coles Finch.
Elizabeth developed and printed her own work often in terrible conditions and would sell them in aid of charity, give them as gifts, or give them as a prize at mountaineering events.
Sadly very little of Elizabeth's photography work is left from her days mountaineering and traveling.
An exhibition was held at the Pontresina Alpine Museum in 2003 and a collection of her photographs published in a volume which the Greystones Historical Society presented to the local library during National Heritage Week 2011.
Selected works
*''The high Alps in winter, or mountaineering in search of health – published 1883''
*''Mountaineering in the Land of the Midnight Sun''
*''Adventures on the Roof of the World''
*''True Tales of Mountain Adventure: For non-climbers Young and Old''
*''My Home in the Alps''
*''High Life of Towers and Silence''
*''Charlotte Sophie, Countess Bentick: Her Life and times, 1715–1800''
*''The Old Gardens of Italy How to Visit them''
*''Day In, Day Out''
References
Sources
Brief biography of "Miss Main"– in German
– with information on the Burnaby Estate and the Hawkins-Whitshed family
by Hein Bruins – source for family information
*Peter H. Hansen, ‘Le Blond, Elizabeth Alice Frances (1860–1934)’
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, October 2006
* Raughter, R. (2012). 'A Victorian Lady in the High Alps, Elizabeth Hawkins-Witshed of Killincarrick''
* Murtagh P. (2013) Victorian-era Women photographers celebrated
* MacLachlan, J. M. (2004). ''Peak performances: Cultural and autobiographical constructions of the Victorian female mountaineer'' (Order No. NQ90225). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (305057898). Retrieved from
* Raughter, R. (2012). ''A Victorian Lady in the High Alps, Elizabeth Hawkins-Witshed of Killincarrick''. Our Wicklow Heritage, Greystones Archaeological and Historical Society. Retrieved fro
* Le, E. A. F. H. W., & Le Blond, M. A. (1883). ''The High alps in Winter: Or, Mountaineering in Search of Health''. S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington
* Siggins, L. (2013, Dec 09). "An Irishwoman's diary". ''The Irish Times'' Retrieved from
* Countywicklowheritage.org. (2017). ''A Victorian Lady in the High Alps , Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed of Killincarrick '', People , County Wicklow Heritage.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins-Whitshed, Elizabeth
1860 births
1934 deaths
Women autobiographers
Irish mountain climbers
Irish photographers
Irish women photographers
Irish artists
Greystones
Presidents of the Ladies' Alpine Club
Female climbers
Irish autobiographers
Daughters of baronets