Beryl Clutterbuck was born in Ashwell, England, on October 26, 1902. Four years later, her father decided to move the family to British East Africa (now Kenya), where he purchased a farm. Mrs. Clutterbuck, finding life in Africa not to her liking, moved back to England, leaving husband and daughter.
Childhood
Beryl's childhood was spent with Murani children, in a very different society from that which her father had left in England. She hunted, barefoot, with the tribe, learning the intricacies of tracking animals from them. During her childhood, she was attacked by a lion; remarkably, her injuries were minor.
While still in her teens, Beryl turned her hand to training horses for racing; she was the first woman in the country to be licensed for this enterprise. In her autobiography, West with the Night, Beryl writes in detail about one of her horses running a race, and winning it, despite having been injured a few months earlier. The horse was retired after this race, and Beryl went on to another vocation.
Flight
In a country with poor roads and few automobiles, the airplane was the logical solution for long-distance transport. Beryl, entranced by planes, made the decision to leave horse training and become a pilot. She logged in thousands of hours, flying mail runs and occasionally transporting hospital patients (one of these, a victim of blackwater fever, died during the flight, and Beryl never knew, she wrote later, how long she had been flying with a corpse). She also flew for game hunters, telling them where to hunt.
During this time, Beryl married. And again. And again. She had many affairs, whether single or married, including a liaison with the Duke of Gloucester (the family paid her off). Another affair concerned Denys Finch Hatton, who at that time was ending his relationship with Karen Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen, who wrote about her experiences in the novel Out of Africa. In West with the Night, Beryl writes in some detail of Karen's husband (whom she called "Blix"), but is completely silent about Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton. Her affair with Tom Black led to the decision to become a pilot, and later, caused her to turn down Finch Hatton's invitation to join him on the flight that ended in his death. (Black had a premonition that the plane would crash.)
Across the Atlantic
Beryl was determined to fly nonstop from England to New York City, and she nearly made it. Another pilot, Jim Mollison, had flown from Ireland to North America, but Beryl was determined to beat this record. No woman had yet accomplished this sort of flight.
On September 4, 1936, Beryl took to the skies above Abingdon, England. The flight was largely uneventful, until the end. Ice formed on the vents of the fuel tanks, and Beryl crashed in Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island. Though her goal had not been reached, she was the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo, from east to west. She was also the first person to fly nonstop from England to the North American continent.
Writing
One of Beryl's acquaintances in Africa read her autobiography, which was published in 1942. In a letter, this acquaintance wrote: "She has written so well, and marvellously well, that I was completely ashamed as a writer ... this girl ... can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book."
The acquaintance was none other than Ernest Hemingway.
Later life
Beryl moved to the United States after her record flight; she returned to Kenya in 1952 and began training horses again. In 1983, her autobiography was reissued, bringing her into the spotlight once again.
She needed it. Beryl was now living in extremely reduced circumstances; a recent burglary had left her with severe injuries from the thieves. The money from new sales of her book allowed her to live in better circumstances for the rest of her life. As it was, "the rest of her life" would be only three more years. She died, In Nairobi, in 1986.
Source: Beryl Markham, West with the Night, 1942.
Erin Naillon - I am deeply interested in the supernatural, as well as history (especially women's history) and true crime. The paranormal has always ...
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