Gwendoline "Gwen" Whyte Richardson was an Australian actress and travel writer, author of On the Diamond Trail in British Guiana.
15 Facts About Gwen Richardson
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Gwendoline Whyte Richardson was born in Kew, and raised in Ballarat, Victoria, the daughter of Margaret Whyte Richardson and Laurence Richardson.
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Gwen Richardson acted in Shakepearean plays at the Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, hosted and coached by Ellen Terry.
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Gwen Richardson entertained troops in London during World War I Gwen Richardson gave a lecture at the British Drama League's meeting in 1919, and toured in South America with a British theatrical company.
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Gwen Richardson performed in Shaw's Misalliance at Boston's Copley Theatre in 1923.
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In 1922, Gwen Richardson hired a boat and crew to travel along the Mazaruni River and Essequibo River in British Guiana and wrote about her journey in On the Diamond Trail in British Guiana, a book described as "brimming with anecdote" and "flashes of wit" in the New York Times review.
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Gwen Richardson tells it with art, with vividness, and in simple English, in the writing of which she often attains distinction and beauty.
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Gwen Richardson was described alongside other white women adventurers of her time, including Rosita Forbes and Osa Helen Johnson.
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Gwen Richardson donated two caecilian specimens from her expedition to the American Museum of Natural History.
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Gwen Richardson made further travels in British Guiana with her husband in 1930, and spoke about British Guiana on BBC Radio in 1939.
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Gwen Richardson married barrister and pilot Maurice Bernal Blake at the British consulate on Corsica in 1925.
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Gwen Richardson's father was British colonial official Henry Arthur Blake, and his mother was botanical illustrator Edith Blake.
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Gwen Richardson 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.
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Gwen Richardson died in 1944 in Surrey, aged 50 years.
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Gwen Richardson is mentioned in the novel When the Singing Stops by Australian writer Di Morrissey, when the main character is inspired by Richardson's book to embark upon similar adventures.