Ethel Birch

Ethel Birch (née Lydia Etheldreda Larden, 1853 – 23 February 1927) was a British born New Zealand settler and the first European woman to climb Mount Ruapehu. She donated watercolours by her mother Lydia Larden to the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui.

Biography

Birch was the youngest daughter of Lydia Larden (née Bucknill) and Rev George Edge Larden of Arkel Rectory, Shropshire.[1] She married her cousin William John Birch in Oxford, England, on 16 December 1875.[1][2] Birch had emigrated to New Zealand in 1860[3] and with his brother Azim established a large sheep station on the Oruamatua-Kaimanawa Block near Moawhango, in the Inland Patea area between Napier and Taihape.[4] The block was later called Erewhon.[4] After their marriage, the couple travelled to New Zealand and settled at Erewhon. In 1877 or 1878 they built a house Stoneycroft in Hastings where they spent summers and ran a stud.[4] From 1887 they lived at and managed Erewhon.[4] In 1899 they moved to Thorseby Farm, Marton, where they lived for the rest of their lives.[4]

Badgworthy, North Devon. Painting by Lydia Larden, Ethel Birch's mother

The Birchs did not have any children[1] but adopted William and Azim's nephew William Caccia in the early 1890s; Caccia changed his name by deed poll to William Charles Caccia Birch.[4]

On 9 March 1881 Birch climbed Mount Ruapehu with her husband and George Beetham, becoming the first European woman to do so.[4][5][6] She penned a letter to the Hawkes Bay Herald in 1886 regarding her observations of steam and clouds around Ruapehu.[7]

In 1922 Birch donated watercolours by her mother Lydia Larden to the Sarjeant Gallery.[1]

Birch died at Thorseby Farm on 23 February 1927 and her funeral took place at Old St Paul's in Wellington.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Lydia Larden". Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  2. ^ "Loughborough: Hathern". Leicester Journal. 24 December 1875. p. 7.
  3. ^ "Birch, William John, 1842–1920". tiaki.natlib.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Fowler, Michael (2021). Over the Gentle Annie: high country life in the inland Patea. Michael Fowler Publishing Ltd. pp. 20, 33–35, 52–55, 60, 70. ISBN 978-0-473-58860-1.
  5. ^ "The battle to climb Mount Ruapehu". NZ Herald. 2024-09-01. Archived from the original on 2024-09-01. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  6. ^ Beetham, George (1926). "Preface". The first ascent of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand, and a holiday jaunt to Mounts Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe. ISBN 9780908327447. Retrieved 2024-09-15 – via NDHA.
  7. ^ "Ruapehu". Hawke's Bay Herald. 6 July 1886. p. 3. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024. Retrieved 15 September 2024 – via Papers Past.
  8. ^ "Women in Print". Evening Post. 24 February 1927. p. 13. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 13 September 2024 – via Papers Past.