Dorothy Middleton (9 November 1909 – 3 February 1999) was a writer and geographer who held several roles at the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 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 scien ...

. Her best-known work is ''Victorian Lady Travellers'' (1965).

Biography

Dorothy Butler was born on 9 November 1909 to Sir Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler and Anne Gertrude Smith, in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, where her father was Deputy Commissioner. The family later relocated to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, when her retired father became a master at Pembroke College. On 30 April 1938, she married Laurence Henry Neave Middleton, a lawyer, and the Middletons settled in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area. Chelsea histori ...

. In the 1950s, Middleton was introduced by John Murray to some letters written by

Isabella Bird Isabella Lucy Bird, married name Bishop (15 October 1831 – 7 October 1904), was a nineteenth-century British explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist. With Fanny Jane Butler she founded the John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Srinagar ...

. From this, Middleton's interest in women travellers grew, resulting in the book ''Victorian Lady Travellers'' (1965) along with contributions to the

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

and lectures around Britain. She published ''Lugard in Africa'' jointly with A. A. Thomson (1959), and edited a reprint of ''The Art of Travel'' by

Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto- ...

(1971). Middleton held a number of roles at the

, at a time when this was still a male preserve. She was assistant editor of

The Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter C ...

for twenty years, became an Honorary Fellow in 1971 and an Honorary Vice-President in 1987. Dorothy Middleton died on 3 February 1999 in Chelsea.

Works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Dorothy 1909 births 1999 deaths Indian writers Indian geographers British women writers British geographers 20th-century geographers