Violet Cressy-Marcks

Violet Olivia Cressy-Marcks (1895–1970) was an explorer mainly active between the wars.

Violet Cressy-Marcks was born Violet Olivia Rutley on 9 June 1895, in West Wickham, Greater London, the only daughter of Ernest & Olivia Rutley. On 13 October 1917 she married Maurice Cressy-Marcks, a captain in the North Lancashire regiment with whom she had one son. They divorced and she married Francis Edwin Fisher of Watford, a farmer & meat wholesaler on 12 December 1931 with whom she had two more sons.

She died at her London home on 10 September 1970 and was buried at Langleybury church, Hertfordshire. Her will included a bequest in her name providing a travelling scholarship for geographical research in the field.

Cressy-Marcks was elected to the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in 1922, described by her proposer as of independent means, already having ‘travelled extensively’ from Alaska to Java and having made private ‘explorations in Tibet, Kashmiri etc.’

Her journeys took her round the world many times. Though twice married, she principally travelled alone. Her extensive interests encompassed archaeology, zoology, ethnology and geography.

Eventually credited with travelling in every country of the world, she was keen to have a scientific grounding to her travels, and was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic and Zoological societies.

She was also a capable cinematographer and photographer, bringing films and photographs from many of her travels including politically sensitive areas. She studied in Arabia and undertook widespread archaeological studies including Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Persia, Java, China, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and the Khmer, Inca, Aztec, and Mesopotamian peoples. Although she was regarded primarily as an archaeologist, part of her remit was to collect contemporary ethnological data on ethnic groups little known in the West.

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