Ursula Bethell
Poet, Mentor & Social Worker
1874–1945
Today our poet is from a different country than any of our other Women Writers have been: (Mary) Ursula Bethell was born in Surrey, England and she came to be known as “of the first wholly accomplished and distinctive voices in New Zealand poetry, and it rightly places her at the beginning of modern New Zealand poetry.”
She moved to New Zealand as a small child along with her parents and siblings. Her family was wealthy, so after spending a childhood immersed in the teachings of the earth, sky, animals, faith and anything her governess offered, she was sent to England to further her education at boarding school there and Switzerland.
She started writing poetry when in England as a teen. It was after she returned to Christchurch she got more intrigued by social work. She could have lived a comfortable, “do whatever she cared to do” sort of life and I suppose she did. She felt compelled by a deepening faith and spirituality to make a difference in the world. She started her social work career with a focus on working class boys. She started the Boys' Gordon Hall and later became a foundation trustee of the Boys' Gordon Hall Trust.
She went to England to continue her social work, this time with the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement in London. She also was a member of an Anglican community popularly known as the Grey Ladies and the Dundee Social Union of Mary Walker in Scotland. She gave up her love of watercolor and fine arts in order to serve the needy. If she wrote poetry during this time, it was not saved.
Her social work was primarily within the context of church and religion. Wherever she went, she affiliated herself with a local church and attempted to find a way to use her influence in a positive way.
Ill health called her to return to New Zealand after the first world war. She purchased a bungalow with Effie Pollen, a young poet also from New Zealand. It was there Ursula returned to the land for pleasure and productivity. It was there she became the poetic voice of New Zealand.
Poetry rose in her constantly as she lead a very contented life filled with gardening and her dear friend, Effie. She would garden and write in her head before coming inside to write. D’Arcy Crestwell, fellow poet, described her Ursula’s work like this: “New Zealand wasn’t truly discovered … until Ursula Bethell, ‘very earnestly digging’, raised her head to look at the mountains. Almost everyone had been blind before.”
I imagine it was her love for all people which lead her to become a mentor to younger poets, ending her life not in actively writing but in actively encouraging the words of others. It seems a fitting end for a woman of her caliber.
This blog post is an entry in the A to Z Challenge. Each day in April (except Sundays) I will be featuring a woman in literary history. If you click on the logo below, you will be introduced to the writing of more than a thousand bloggers writing on a wide variety of topics in April, all from A to Z!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again April 19, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
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