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Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed was born in Dublin on the 26 June 1860. She was the daughter of Captain Vincent Hawkins-Whitshed and Mrs. Anne Hawkins-Whitshed who raised her in Killincarrick House, Greystones, Co. Wicklow. Elizabeth’s childhood was said to be happy in the countryside with a devoted mother, but her father died in 1871 leaving her inherited Killincarrick House along with nearly 2,000 acres of land spreading across Dublin, Meath and Wicklow at the age of eleven years old. Elizabeth could claim kinship with royalty and aristocracy in Europe through her Bentick great grandmother and at the age of eighteen she joined London society and married her first husband Captain Fred Burnaby, a British Army intelligence officer. Shortly after the wedding ceremony, she gave birth to her son Harry Burnaby in 1880 and only a few months after the birth, her and her husband began leading primarily separate lives until his death in the battle of Sudan on 17 January 1885. In the time leading up to his death, Elizabeth had been spending her time searching for a cure to the lung difficulty she was experiencing. In 1881 she moved to Switzerland where she went on excursions on the lower slopes of Mont Blanc and built an appetite for mountaineering. In the years following her arrival in Switzerland, she scaled Mont Blanc twice as well as many other difficult peaks. Elizabeth spent her time making more than one hundred ascents and was part of the first ever women only expedition. In 1886, Elizabeth married her second husband John Frederick Main which was short lived where he died alone in North America in 1892.

Countywicklowheritage.org. (2017). A Victorian Lady in the High Alps | Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed of Killincarrick | People | County Wicklow Heritage.