Isabella Bird
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Isabella Bird FRGS |
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| Born |
Isabella Lucy Bird 15 October 1831 Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 7 October 1904 (aged 72) Melville Street, Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Resting place | Dean cemetery, Edinburgh |
| Nationality | English |
| Other names | Isabella Bishop |
| Occupation | English explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist |
| Spouse(s) | John Bishop (m. 1881) |
| Children | none |
| Parent(s) | Dora Lawson, Edward Bird |
Isabella Lucy Bird, married name Bishop FRGS (15 October 1831 – 7 October 1904), was a nineteenth-century English explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist. With Fanny Jane Butler she founded the John Bishop Memorial hospital in Srinagar. She was the first woman to be elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Bird was born on 15 October 1831 at Boroughbridge Hall, Yorkshire, the home of her maternal grandmother. Her parents were Rev Edward Bird BA (1794-1858) and his second wife, Dora Lawson (1803-1866). Boroughbridge was her father's first curacy after taking orders in 1830, and it was here he met Dora.
Bird moved several times during her childhood. In 1832, Reverend Bird was appointed curate in Maidenhead, where Isabella's brother Edward was born and died in his first year. Because of her father's ill health Bird's family moved again in 1834 to Tattenhall in Cheshire, a living presented to him by his cousin Dr John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester, where in the same year Bird's sister, Henrietta, was born.
Isabella was outspoken from an early age. When six years old, she confronted the local MP for South Cheshire: "Sir Malpas de Grey Tatton Egerton, while he was campaigning, asking him "did you tell my father my sister was so pretty because you wanted his vote?"
Edward Bird's controversial views against Sunday labour caused his congregation to dwindle, and in 1842 he requested a transfer to St. Thomas's in Birmingham. Here again objections were raised which culminated in the minister's being pelted "with stones, mud, and insults".
In 1848, the family moved again and, after spending some time in Eastbourne, took up residence in Wyton in Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire.)
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