Interviewing Mabel Bent

“Mrs Bent was a middle aged lady, she wore a man’s helmet and a monocle and a short skirt and knee breeches and leather leggings.” Llewellyn Cambria Meredith (1866-1942), the Bents’ headman and wagonmaster on their 1891 Great Zimbabwe expedition. Quoted in R.H. Wood, Heritage of Zimbabwe 16(1997): 55-66. (The Bent Archive. Mabel Bent, a studio portrait, very possibly taken in Cape Town in 1891).

Irishwoman and celebrity explorer Mabel Bent (a.k.a. Mrs J. Theodore Bent) was, understandably, much in demand for media interviews; her exploits over twenty years fascinated readers internationally.

Although there was a cadre of notable solo women travellers at the turn of the 20th century, adventuring British husband-and-wife teams were rare.

Mabel is often credited as being the first Western woman to explore remote regions in the three areas of the world that interested the inseparable couple  (married 1877) – the Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and Arabia. For example, Mabel, a role model for Freya Stark in many ways, was trekking through the notorious Wadi Hadramawt (Yemen), three decades before the indomitable latter.

Here is a selection from the many interviews Mabel gave to newspapers and periodicals:

1893: “The Gentlewoman – The Illustrated Weekly Journal for Gentlewomen”, No. 175, Vol. VII, Saturday, November 11, 1893.

1893-4: Two interviews for ‘Lady of the House’ (September 1893 and July 1894).

1895: “Mrs Theodore Bent – The Queen of Explorers”. ‘The Newry Telegraph’ for Thursday, 3rd January 1895.

1895: The Bents: a rare interview from ‘The Album’, 8th July 1895.

1903: Mabel V.A. Bent: ‘In the Days of My Youth: Chapters of Autobiography’, Mainly About People, 10, Issue 240 (17 January 1903), pp. 72-3.