Ethel Birch

Ethel Birch (née Lydia Etheldreda Larden, 1853 – 23 February 1927) was a British born New Zealand settler and the first European woman to climb Mount Ruapehu.

[1][2] Birch had emigrated to New Zealand in 1860[3] and with his brother Azim established a large sheep station on the Oruamatua-Kaimanawa Block near Moawhango, in the Inland Patea area between Napier and Taihape.

[4] On 9 March 1881 Birch climbed Mount Ruapehu with her husband and George Beetham, becoming the first European woman to do so.

[4][5][6] She penned a letter to the Hawkes Bay Herald in 1886 regarding her observations of steam and clouds around Ruapehu.

[1] Birch died at Thorseby Farm on 23 February 1927 and her funeral took place at Old St Paul's in Wellington.