27 Facts About Mary Kingsley

Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an English ethnographer, writer and explorer who made numerous travels through West Africa and wrote several books on her experiences there.

Mary Kingsley came from a family of writers, as she was the niece of novelists Charles Kingsley and Henry Kingsley.

The family moved to Highgate less than a year after her birth, the same home where her brother Charles George R Kingsley was born in 1866, and by 1881 were living in Southwood House, Bexley in Kent.

Mary Kingsley's father was a physician and worked for George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke and other aristocrats and was frequently away from home on his excursions.

Dr Mary Kingsley accompanied Lord Dunraven on a trip to North America from 1870 to 1875.

Mary Kingsley had little formal schooling compared to her brother, other than German lessons at a young age; because, at that time and at her level of society, education was not thought to be necessary for a girl.

Mary Kingsley did have access to her father's large library and loved to hear his stories of foreign countries.

Mary Kingsley did not enjoy novels that were deemed more appropriate for young ladies of the time, such as those by Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte, but preferred books on the sciences and memoirs of explorers.

In 1886, her brother Charley entered Christ's College, Cambridge, to read law; this allowed Mary Kingsley to make several academic connections and a few friends.

Mary Kingsley is known for criticizing Christian missionaries and their work for supplanting pre-existing African cultures without proving any material benefits in return.

Dr Mary Kingsley died in February 1892, and Mrs Mary Kingsley followed a few months later in April of the same year.

African women were surprised that a woman of Mary Kingsley's age was travelling without a man, as she was frequently asked why her husband was not accompanying her.

Mary Kingsley landed in Sierra Leone on 17 August 1893 and from there travelled further to Luanda in Angola.

Mary Kingsley lived with local people, who taught her necessary surviving-skills for living in the wilderness, acted as luggage porters and guides for her travels, and gave her advice.

Mary Kingsley returned to Africa again on 23 December 1894 with more support and supplies from England, as well as increased self-assurance in her work.

Mary Kingsley longed to study "cannibal" people and their traditional religious practices, commonly referred to as "fetish" during the Victorian Era.

Mary Kingsley arrived at Slessor's residence shortly after she had taken in a recent mother of twins and her surviving child.

Later in Gabon, Mary Kingsley canoed up the Ogooue River, where she collected specimens of fish previously unknown to western science, three of which were later named after her.

When she returned home in November 1895, Mary Kingsley was greeted by journalists eager to interview her.

Mary Kingsley distanced herself from any feminist movement claims, arguing that women's suffrage was "a minor question; while there was a most vital section of men disenfranchised women could wait".

Mary Kingsley was the first woman to address the Liverpool and Manchester chambers of commerce.

Mary Kingsley knew that the typical African wives had too many tasks to manage alone.

Mary Kingsley's criticised teetotal missionaries, suggesting that those who drank small quantities of alcohol had better survival rates.

Mary Kingsley wrote two books about her experiences: Travels in West Africa, which was an immediate best-seller, and West African Studies, both of which gained her respect and prestige within the scholarly community.

My reason for taking up this study was a desire to complete a great book my father, George Mary Kingsley, had left at his death unfinished.

Mary Kingsley was stationed at Simon's Town hospital, where she treated Boer prisoners of war.

Mary Kingsley asked to be left to die alone, saying she did not wish anyone to see her in her weakness.