GRIMSHAW, BEATRICE (ETHEL)

born 1871, County Antrim, Ire. died June 30, 1953, Bathurst, N.S.W., Australia Irish-born writer and traveler whose many books deal with her travels and adventures in the South Seas. Grimshaw was educated at Victoria College, Belfast; at Pension Retailaud, Caen, France; at the University of Belfast; and at Bedford College, London. She was commissioned by the London Daily Graphic to travel around the world and report her experiences. But she was so attracted by the Pacific islands that the journey was never completed; she settled in Papua in 1907 and became the first white woman to grow tobacco there. She traveled extensively among the islands of the Pacific and the East Indies and made detailed studies of local legends and customs. She wrote more than 33 novels and travel books based on these experiences, of which the best known is the novel The Red Gods Call (1910). Another important novel is The Victorian Family Robinson (1934), and her travel books include From the Fiji to the Cannibal Islands (1907).