Gwen Richardson
{{short description|British writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gwen Richardson
| image = GwenRichardson1925.png
| alt = A white woman standing in profile, one arm on hip, other arm outstretched and holding a pistol. She is wearing a hat with a wide brim, a white blouse with sleeves rolled up, and a knee-length skirt with dark tights or boots.
| caption = Gwen Richardson's author photo from On the Diamond Trail in British Guiana (1925)
| other_names = Gwendoline W. Blake (after marriage in 1925)
| birth_name = Gwendoline Whyte Richardson
| birth_date = {{birth date text|5 June 1894}}
| birth_place = Kew, Victoria, Australia
| death_date = {{death date and age|27 November 1944|5 June 1894|df=yes}}
| death_place = Surrey, England
| occupation = Actress, explorer, travel writer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = On the Diamond Trail in British Guiana (1925)
| spouse(s) =
| relatives = Henry Arthur Blake (father-in-law); Edith Blake (mother-in-law)
}}
Gwendoline "Gwen" Whyte Richardson (5 June 1894{{Cite news|date=1894-06-14|title=Family Notices|pages=1|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197469078|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} – 27 November 1944) was an Australian actress and travel writer, author of On the Diamond Trail in British Guiana (1925).
Early life
Gwendoline Whyte Richardson was born in Kew, and raised in Ballarat, Victoria,{{Cite book|last=Robinson|first=Jane|url=http://archive.org/details/waywardwomenguid00robi|title=Wayward women: A guide to women travellers|date=1991|publisher=Oxford: Oxford University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-19-282822-4|pages=74–75}} the daughter of Margaret Whyte Richardson and Laurence Richardson. Her father was an organist and music teacher.{{Cite news|date=1902-12-20|title=Mr. Laurence Richardson's Students|pages=1|work=Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208366580|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} Her grandfather was a Scottish clergyman.{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Gwen|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b722104|title=On the diamond trail in British Guiana |date=1925|location=New York|publisher=Brentano's Publishers|hdl=2027/uc1.$b722104|via=HathiTrust}} Richardson performed on stage in Australia before and during World War I;{{Cite news|date=1916-02-08|title=Ballarat Pierrot Concert for the Red Cross|pages=3|work=Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1929)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119731790|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} she moved to England in 1916.{{Cite news|date=1916-02-18|title=The Christmas Carolers|pages=2|work=Evening Echo (Ballarat, Vic. : 1914 - 1918)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241387183|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}}
Career
Richardson acted in Shakepearean plays{{Cite book|last=Darlington|first=William Aubrey|url=http://archive.org/details/throughfourthwal00darluoft|title=Through the fourth wall|date=1922|publisher=London Chapman and Hall ltd|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=61–62}} at the Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, hosted and coached by Ellen Terry.{{Cite news|date=1921-07-16|title=PERSONAL NOTES FROM ENGLAND.|pages=8|work=Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article211969129|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|last=Franziska|date=1921-11-12|title=Mainly About People.|pages=6|work=Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83117399|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} She entertained troops in London during World War I.{{Cite news|date=1918-03-23|title=PERSONAL.|pages=1|work=Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154732354|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} She gave a lecture at the British Drama League's meeting in 1919,{{Cite news|date=1919-12-27|title=SHAKESPEARIAN FESTIVAL|pages=7|work=Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212677854|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} and toured in South America with a British theatrical company.{{Cite news|last=Church|first=Hayden|date=1922-12-17|title=Girl is Going Diamond Hunting in Wilds of British Guiana|pages=12|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74251497/girl-is-going-diamond-hunting-in-wilds/|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Newspapers.com}} She performed in Shaw's Misalliance at Boston's Copley Theatre in 1923.{{Cite news|date=1923-11-10|title=Personal|pages=1|work=Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213855749|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}}
In 1922, Richardson hired a boat and crew to travel along the Mazaruni River and Essequibo River in British Guiana{{Cite news|date=1922-11-02|title=Her Way of Securing a Diamond Necklace|pages=8|work=Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article243776693|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} and wrote about her journey in On the Diamond Trail in British Guiana (1925), a book described as "brimming with anecdote" and "flashes of wit" in the New York Times review.{{Cite news|date=1926-12-05|title=Brief Reviews|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/12/05/archives/in-british-guiana-on-the-diamond-trail-in-british-guiana-by-gwen.html|access-date=2021-03-24|issn=0362-4331}} Coulson Kernahan noted that "Miss Richardson tells her story with modest reticence and with entire absence of exaggeration. She tells it with art, with vividness, and in simple English, in the writing of which she often attains distinction and beauty."{{Cite journal|last=Kernahan|first=Coulson|date=December 1925|title='A Character Out of a Book, Perhaps by Joseph Conrad'|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_bookman_1925-12_69_411/page/n51/mode/2up?q=%22Gwen+Richardson%22|journal=The Bookman|volume=69|pages=172–175|via=Internet Archive}} Excerpts from the book were reprinted in American and Canadian newspapers, under sensational headlines and with maps and photos of Richardson handling snakes, scorpions, and guns.{{Cite news|last=Richardson|first=Gwen|date=1924-06-01|title=How I Fought with Death for Blue Diamonds|pages=26|work=Zanesville Times Signal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74252208/how-i-fought-with-death-for-blue/|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Newspapers.com}} She was described alongside other white women adventurers of her time, including Rosita Forbes and Osa Helen Johnson.{{Cite news|date=1924-12-07|title=A Witch-Guarded Treasure Waiting for Some Beauty?|pages=64|work=The Spokesman-Review|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74252502/a-witch-guarded-treasure-waiting-for/|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Newspapers.com}}
Richardson donated two caecilian specimens from her expedition to the American Museum of Natural History.{{Cite book|last=American Museum of Natural History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n8tVAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Gwen+Richardson%22+Guiana&pg=RA2-PA155|title=Annual Report; Gifts to the Department of Herpetology|date=1923|publisher=|pages=155|language=en}} She made further travels in British Guiana with her husband in 1930,{{Cite news|date=1930-04-08|title=Aus. Woman's Venture|pages=3|work=Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223702032|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|date=1930-09-15|title=ADVENTURERS RETURN|pages=9|work=Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54672901|access-date=2021-03-24|via=Trove}} and spoke about British Guiana on BBC Radio in 1939.{{Cite news|date=1939-08-18|title=Keeping House in the Jungle|language=en-GB|pages=28|work=The Radio Times|issue=829|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/55ee7102f4954bf8977af6785e5ca82a|access-date=2021-03-24|issn=0033-8060}}
Personal life and legacy
Richardson married barrister and pilot Maurice Bernal Blake (1878–1934) at the British consulate on Corsica in 1925. They met on her first trip to British Guiana, when he accompanied her river expedition. His father was British colonial official Henry Arthur Blake, and his mother was botanical illustrator Edith Blake.{{Cite news|date=December 9, 1925|title=A Romance of the Diamond Fields|page=3|work=The Gleaner|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-dec-09-1925-2340504/|access-date=March 24, 2021|via=NewspaperArchive.com}}{{Cite news|last=Mannion|first=Nathan|title=Lady Edith Blake, Irish polyglot, botanical artist and travel writer|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/lady-edith-blake-irish-polyglot-botanical-artist-and-travel-writer-1.3617078|access-date=2021-03-24|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}} She lived in the Italian spa town Sirmione in her later years, and was a friend of British actresses Naomi Jacob and Mrs. Patrick Campbell there.{{Cite book|last=Margot Peters|url=http://archive.org/details/mrspat00marg|title=Mrs. Pat|date=1984|publisher=Knopf|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-394-52189-3|pages=500–501}} She died in 1944 in Surrey, aged 50 years.
Richardson's description of handling scorpions was included in the 1994 collection Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers, edited by Jane Robinson.{{Cite book|last=Robinson|first=Jane|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpJCAwAAQBAJ&dq=Gwen+Richardson+Blake&pg=PA427|title=Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers|date=1994-05-19|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-153874-2|pages=426–427|language=en}} She is mentioned in the novel When the Singing Stops (2012) by Australian writer Di Morrissey,{{Cite web|last=Williams|first=Sue|date=2020-01-30|title=My travel life: Di Morrissey|url=https://www.traveller.com.au/my-travel-life-di-morrissey-bestselling-author-h1ldqk|access-date=2021-03-24|website=Traveller|language=en-au}} when the main character is inspired by Richardson's book to embark upon similar adventures.{{Cite book|last=Morrissey|first=Di|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDzbkoDyMRkC&dq=Pistol&pg=PT137|title=When the Singing Stops|date=2012-01-06|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4668-1030-3|language=en}}
References
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Category:20th-century Australian actresses
Category:Australian travel writers
Category:Australian emigrants to England