MEMBERS of the public are invited to attend the unveiling of a headstone and plaque for a prolific novelist at the Bathurst Cemetery next week.
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The plaque will be unveiled for Beatrice Grimshaw, a writer, journalist and traveller of Irish origin who retired at Kelso in 1936 after an adventurous life and died on June 30, 1953.
That adventurous life included working for various shipping companies in the Canary Islands and writing tourist publicity material for the Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Niue and New Zealand, and on the prospects for settlers in Fiji.
She lived in Port Moresby for more than 20 years, acting as the unofficial publicist of the acting administrator, (Sir) Hubert Murray, for a time.
Her 42 books included a part-autobiography, Isles of Adventure, and 38 volumes of novels and stories.
One of her novels was filmed by Hollywood as the film Adorable Outcast.
Despite her rich life and prodigious literary output, Grimshaw has, up until now, been in an unmarked grave at Bathurst Cemetery.
Bathurst Family History Group has used money from the cemetery tours the group runs as part of the Autumn Colours program to pay for the headstone and plaque which will be unveiled next week.
Bathurst Regional Council has also provided support.
The unveiling will be held at 10.30am next Wednesday, January 11 at the gravesite.
Irish travel writer Diana Gleadhill – who has been following in Grimshaw’s footsteps over the last few months, travelling from Ireland through the Pacific Islands and eventually coming to Bathurst, to recognise Grimshaw’s contribution to travel writing, exploration and fictional writing - will be attending the dedication.
