The greatest traveller

Exploring ancient civilisations and rising powers, Violet CressyMarcks became the most travelled woman of her age. Fifty years after her death we look at her incredible life

- Gillian Thornton

Package holidays and low cost airlines have revolutionised our horizons over recent decades in ways that would have been unthinkable even 50 years ago. So when the Covid-19 pandemic slammed the brakes on global travel this year, we all realised just how much we have taken freedom to travel for granted.

Intrepid explorer Violet Cressy-Marcks, former resident of Hazelwood House – now Hunton Park – on the outskirts of Watford, criss-crossed the world from the 1920s through to the 1950s, long before travel insurance, routine inoculations and high-speed transport were the norm, as a scientist, reporter and explorer.

When Violet became a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in 1922, fewer than eight per cent of its 5,614 fellows were women. Despite being formed in 1830, the society was men-only until 1913.

‘Fellows didn’t need to hold geographical qualifications,’ explains Julie Carrington of the RGS Library. ‘A general interest in geography, travel or related matters was sufficient. And the ability to pay the annual subscription of course!’

Violet had no trouble meeting any of the criteria. She had already travelled extensively and was declared ‘a lady of independent means’ by her RGS proposer who had met her in Alaska, Japan and Java. So who was this extraordinary female pioneer?