Meeting Room

Meetings of the Torbay Civic Society have resumed and in a new venue. The room is a recent addition to the Palace Theatre, Paignton- another performance and meeting place. One wall is covered in old paperback books in themed colours.
Each meeting we have a talk about a local, or Devon person. Today’s subject was Gertrude Bentham, whose occasional home was in Dorset, but her archive is in Plymouth Museum. Gertrude was a traveller, who pioneered the cause of women who wanted to seek adventure.  She was born in 1867 and began her adventurous life in 1904 after her parents died. She was a walker and climber, and was probably the first European woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. In all her adventures she was only armed with an umbrella. She died in 1971 while returning home from one of her tours and was buried at sea off the coast of Africa.