Bentley Beetham 1886 - 1963
Home and School - In the second half of the nineteenth century Stanhope Road would have been a quiet, unassuming, residential area of Darlington. It was here on 1 May 1886 that Frances Elizabeth Beetham gave birth to her second son. He was given his mother’s maiden name of Bentley. His father, James Weighell Beetham,...
The Lure of the Hills ... After leaving School aged of nearly seventeen he spent some time working in an architect’s office in Darlington but his real interests lay elsewhere. In the next ten years or so his interest in ornithology was more research centred and the camera became a tool in furthering his studies...
After Everest ... Beetham returned to Barnard Castle as a master at his old School; a post to which he had been appointed in 1914, to teach Natural History. His approach to teaching was formal – there was little in the way of field trips – with notes and diagrams being de rigeur, and occasionally there was practical work on the carcase of a badger or the dissection of a sheep’s eye. Some pupils responded to this approach well although some were not so captivated.
