1985. Virginia or Ginny Fiennes becomes the first woman ever to be invited to join the revered ranks of the Antarctic Club and just two years later, the first to receive the famous Polar Medal. After seven years of planning to realise her dream to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis, Ginny set off on her 35,000-mile voyage that took some three years. And she did it with her dog, Bothie. The only dog to have been to both the north and south poles. She was awarded handsomely for her endeavours. Everyone knows Sir Ranulph Fiennes is not only the greatest living explorer but one of the greatest of all time, but his wife Ginny was the lynchpin of his success, the mastermind behind Ranulph’s polar treks. Yet few people know of Ginny or her achievements. Even to this day, Ranulph maintains he owes everything to Ginny. And he isn’t wrong…
On Ginny’s Secret Service
The superbly named Virginia Frances, Lady Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, was born Virginia Frances Pepper in Godalming, Surrey in 1947. She came from a family of chalk quarry owners, who had owned the Amberley chalk quarries for 300 years. Ginny, as she was known, met Ranulph Fiennes when she was only nine years of age. Ran, as she knew him, was an unruly 12-year-old boy who loved to show off. He had arrived on Ginny’s patch after his family had moved to England from South Africa. He was a renegade. Of course Ginny was drawn to him. Because she was a renegade, too.
They may have gone to separate boarding schools, but nothing could keep the two apart. Later, she waited for him to finish his army service and they married in 1970, the same year Ranulph auditioned to play James Bond but lost out to Sean Connery. But Ginny was not hopelessly in love waiting for her beloved to return home, far from it. She loved the great outdoors and the second she finished school, she left home for Scotland.
For two years, as a young teenage girl, she lived away from home working for the National Trust in Scotland. She took up deep-sea diving and she also trained at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. Then she took marine radio officer courses and joined the Women’s Royal Army Corps Territorials, all before she was even 20. She was as tough as they come. Nobody messed with Ginny. Ranulph was smitten. He had fallen for a real-life superhero.
Ranulph was a keen writer but often busy, so as a young teenager Ginny spent many months researching Ran’s books. However, her greatest achievement in her young life came in 1968 when, at the age of 21, she organised the first ascent of the longest river in the world, the Nile, by prototype hovercraft.
She was tough, she knew what she wanted, and she knew how to get it.
The Bloodied Knees of Determination
In 1968, as Ranulph’s fiancée, Ginny managed to secure an interview with Britain’s top literary agent, George Greenfield. But she arrived at the meeting with her knees covered in blood. She had fallen down the steel-edged steps at Holborn tube station. Rather than seeking medical attention, and still bleeding quite badly, she got up, dusted herself off and went to her interview. She was wearing a miniskirt so she couldn’t hide her injuries.
George was so impressed by her persistence, describing Ginny as a ‘fiery envoy’, that he agreed to take Ran’s first book… sight unseen. That was how much she cared for Ranulph. Was she simply trying to impress him? I think not. She was tough. She wouldn’t have seen her bloodied knees as anything other than a mild inconvenience. There is a story Ranulph tells of Ginny. He used to suffer from such bad vertigo that he got Ginny to climb ladders to clear the gutters.
On another occasion, while discussing an offer from the Observer for exclusive coverage of an expedition, Ginny confronted a committee of 18 senior polar experts, including Sir Vivian Fuchs. George Greenfield offered 20 percent of the revenue from foreign rights to accrue to the expedition, and 80 percent from the Observer. Ginny single-handedly persuaded Editor Donald Trelford’s executives to switch the figures around and give 80% for the expedition. You can see what Ranulph means when he says Ginny was the mastermind.
Even when the times were tough, as they often are in the world of polar expedition, Ginny was always remarkably upbeat, her sense of humour never far away. Much later, Ranulph discovered he had to have five fingers amputated because of frostbite. Ginny replied to this revelation by saying to Ran:
Oh damn, now we’ll be short-handed on the farm.
The Humour of the Adventurer and Her Kindness to Others
Despite her sometimes forceful manner, Ginny was known to her friends and family for her gentleness, integrity and unselfishness. She was modest and private, hating being in the spotlight. She never, not once, took credit for any of her achievements, such as in 1971 when she organised the first trans-navigation of British Columbia, entirely by river. It took four months and was filmed by the BBC for the ‘World About Us’ series. One night, awaiting the arrival of the boats bringing petrol and food, she was startled by a bear and accidentally shot herself in her foot. Literally. With an actual bullet.
In 1972, Ginny was commissioned by ‘Woman’s Own’ magazine to live for two months with an Omani family in a Jebel Akhdar village. The idea was that she would act as the sheikh’s third wife, albeit on the strict understanding of no sex allowed. She loved her Omani family and lived entirely as they did. Out of respect for their privacy, she decided not to publish an article on her experience. The adventure sparked her lifelong love of Oman and she later organised four expeditions with Ran to locate the lost frankincense city of Ubar in Dhofar. The quest finally succeeded in the early 1990s after two decades of searching.
In 1972, she devised a plan to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis. She was involved in all her husband’s adventures, accompanying him on almost all of his expeditions, normally as the radio operator and organiser. She was also Ranulph’s often acerbic spokesperson. When Norwegians became the first to walk to the North Pole, Ginny told reporters that her husband, who had failed four times to do this, was:
Thrilled to bits.
The Piercing Eyes of a Real-Life Superhero
In 1982, Ginny realised her dream of circumnavigating the world along its polar axis. The Transglobe Expedition team became the first to reach both north and south poles, having crossed Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean through the North-West Passage. It was a journey of 35,000 miles or 56,327 kilometres and took three years. Ginny remained close to the people she met on the trip. This was Ranulph’s most audacious expedition yet, yet it was the idea of his wife. It brought him much acclaim. But not her.
Ranulph writes in one of his books that Ginny came up with the idea one night while she was cooking stew. Ran was concerned. They were already struggling to pay the mortgage, much less undertake a trek nobody had ever attempted. Ginny, in her usual manner, replied:
So?
Ran describes Ginny’s ‘glacier-blue eyes were on me, unblinking’, which sounds terrifying. The discussion continued long into the night, with Ginny winning the argument by saying, “It is pathetic not to try something just because nobody else had.” It was a dangerous journey. They had narrowly survived the dangers of errant polar bears and desert sunburns.
Ginny may have never taken the credit, but she was a talented and intelligent explorer. She was, by far, Britain’s most experienced polar radio operator. She set up and maintained 80-foot radio masts in the Arctic and Antarctic often in high winds and battling temperatures of -50 degrees Celsius. In 1980, she was instrumental in saving the lives of a group of South African scientists lost to the north of her isolated base.
‘Superhero’ is not an overstatement.
Bothie the Super-Dog and the Polar Extraordinaire
One thing Ginny loved more than anything else was her beloved Jack Russell terrier, Bothie. Bothie became the first dog to travel to the north and south poles, an achievement Ginny recounted in her bestselling book, ‘Bothie, The Polar Dog’. Oh, she was also an accomplished author. She loved animals deeply. In 1981, she saved a St John’s Water Dog from an Inuit annual cull and brought her back to Britain to found a new breed. There are now 50 descendants which are much in demand.
In the 1980s, Ginny moved to Exmoor National Park and began to raise a herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle and a flock of black Welsh Mountain sheep. She became a highly proficient hill farmer. To this day, her cattle are highly sought after by breeders all over the UK and have won many major awards at cattle shows.
For her achievements, in 1985 Ginny became the first woman ever to be invited to join the hallowed ranks of the Antarctic Club and, two years later, the first to receive the Polar Medal from Queen Elizabeth II. It was in recognition of her research work. She hung up her headset in 1985, and in 1990, the family moved permanently to Exmoor.
In 1987, Ginny was interviewed by The Guardian. She recalled how Ranulph had proposed in a traffic jam. Unsurprisingly, her family objected to the union. But look how far they had come together. You cannot have Sir Ranulph Fiennes without Ginny. In 1998 she said of Ran:
I’m not the sort to throw myself on the floor and burst into tears each time he sets off on one of his expeditions. I married Ran knowing what he’s like and what he does. I just keep extremely busy. And because I’ve been on polar expeditions with him, I can relate to what he’s doing.
The Eternal Adulation of the Unsung Explorer
Ginny and Ranulph’s marriage was unusual. In 2001, Ranulph ran seven marathons on seven continents after having double heart bypass surgery earlier that year, all to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. Later the year, Ginny heard a commotion in the tool shed. She soon found out that Ran had sawed off the tips of his frostbitten fingers and a thumb. Predictably, he was in agonising pain and screaming. Ginny rushed to his aid but she was hardly surprised and clearly not in a great hurry. Eventually, she took him to the hospital, but his cries were starting to annoy her. Ranulph later said:
I wanted to get out of the car, but my wife told me to stop being a wimp.
Right up until her untimely death, Ginny was planning new expeditions abroad and new cattle-breeding operations back home. But the day after Ranulph returned home from his remarkable marathon adventure, Ginny informed him that while he was away, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Tragically, on February 10th, 2004, Virginia ‘Ginny’ Fiennes died at the desperately young age of just 56. Cancer took her.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes was just 60 when Ginny died and he is still with us to this day. She had been his best friend and confidant for 48 years. Ranulph was devastated and became withdrawn. He still conducts speaking tours to this day and every time he makes sure to heap praise upon the woman that made him a hero.
While Ranulph led many expeditions, it was the wife he idolised who originated and inspired the planning, had the final say in choosing the teams, organised the routes and schedules, and was sometimes base leader, not to mention her incredible expertise in communications. She hated bureaucracy and never took ‘no’ for an answer. Although she was slight in stature, men feared her and her bright, piercing blue eyes. She was a true, British legend, an unsung hero and an icon of exploration that will never be forgotten.
She was renowned for her sense of humour and ensured her husband’s success came before her wellbeing. Famously, when she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, she didn’t tell Ranulph as he was busy with his marathons and she didn’t want him to worry. She wanted him to succeed. It is easy to see why he idolised her.
It is hard to know how to remember Ginny. She never liked being in the spotlight and hated adulation. But it is hard to deny just how inspirational Ginny is. She is revered by so many people today, especially female explorers. She was the unrecognised power behind Ranulph’s success but today, she inspires women all over the world. She was the definition of the pursuit of adventure. She may have died before her time but what a life she lived.
Roman Payne once wrote:
‘She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city.’
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Click Here for Credits (click on images to enlarge)
Image Credits
https://www.amazon.ca/Vintage-photo-Ginny-Fiennes-Ranulph/dp/B07F84Y29F, https://teamdogs.co.uk/articles/this-fearless-jack-russell-is-one-of-history-s-greatest-explorers-KxmLVyWmyKo, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/sir-ranulph-fiennes-cut-fingers-put-tin-desk-didnt-want-throw/
Post Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginny_Fiennes, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/feb/24/guardianobituaries.gender, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2021/10/01/women-of-cryo-iv-virginia-ginny-fiennes-1947-2004/, https://alt.obituaries.narkive.com/jfqRWaUK/virginia-fiennes-wife-of-british-explorer-556, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/nyregion/lady-fiennes-muse-of-a-british-explorer-is-dead-at-56.html, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-one-stubborn-minded-jack-25764006
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