Fanny Susan Copeland
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Fanny Susan Copeland OBE (27 September 1872 – 28 July 1970) was an Irish translator, mountaineer, journalist and linguist who lived much of her life in
Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
.


Biography


Early life

Copeland was born in
Birr Castle Birr Castle ( Irish: ) is a large castle in the town of Birr in County Offaly, Ireland. It is the home of the 7th Earl of Rosse and his family, and as the castle is generally not open to the public, though the grounds and gardens of the deme ...
in
Parsonstown Birr (; , meaning "plain of water") is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Between 1620 and 1899 it was called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earl of Rosse, Earls of Rosse. The town is in a Civil p ...
, County Offaly in 1872, when her father was assistant to
Lord Rosse William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (17 June 1800 – 31 October 1867), was an English engineer and astronomer. He built several giant telescopes. His 72-inch telescope, built in 1845 and colloquially known as the "Leviathan of Parsonstown", was ...
. Her father was astronomer
Ralph Copeland Ralph Copeland FRSE FRAS (3 September 1837 – 27 October 1905) was an English astronomer and the third Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Life Copeland was born at Moorside Farm, near Woodplumpton in Lancashire, England the son of Robert Cope ...
, her mother was his second wife, Anna Teodora Berto. Because of her father's job, the family often moved. While she was in school in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
at the age of 13, they moved to
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. Her father was now the royal astronomer. Copeland was trained as a singer along with her more general education.


Marriage and early career

She became Fanny S. Copeland Barkwort when she married the 36-year-old John Edmund Barkworth when she was 22; he was a professor of music. The marriage broke up in 1908, by which time they had three children: Ralph, Harold and Lilian. They divorced in 1912 and Copeland left music and began writing.


World War I and Yugoslavia

By the 1910s she already spoke German, Italian, French, Danish, Norwegian, Latin, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, and was capable of translating Bulgarian and Russian. Copeland worked on the Yugoslav Committee and the Serbian Press in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
from 1915 to 1919. She worked as a translator for
Ante Trumbić Ante Trumbić (17 May 1864 – 17 November 1938) was a Yugoslav and Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century. Biography Trumbić was born in Split in the Austrian crownland of Dalmatia and studied law at Zagreb, Vienna and G ...
and the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...
and as his personal secretary at the
Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...
. Copeland then began to work in the English department at the Faculty of Arts, at the University of The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in
Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...
. She began this role in 1921. Over the next 50 years the role expanded until Copeland had lectured to over 5000 students.


World War II

In 1939 Copeland was awarded an OBE for acting as an unofficial consul in her years living in Slovenia. She was deported to Italy in 1941. She was interned there in Bibbiana near
Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...
. It took until 1953 before she could obtain a visa to return to Yugoslavia. Copeland returned to Slovenia and lived the rest of her life there.


Slovenia

Throughout her career, Copeland developed strong ties between Britain and Slovenia. She published articles in ''
Time and Tide Time and Tide (usually derived from the proverb ''Time and tide wait for no man'') may refer to: Music Albums * ''Time and Tide'' (Greenslade album), 1975 * ''Time and Tide'' (Basia album), 1987 * ''Time and Tide'' (Battlefield Band album), ...
'', ''
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'', ''The Observer'', ''Discovery'', ''European Commercial'', ''
London Mercury ''The London Mercury'' was the name of several periodicals published in London from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The earliest was a newspaper that appeared during the Exclusion Bill crisis; it lasted only 56 issues (1682). (Earlier periodical ...
'', ''The Near East and India'', ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
'' and ''
Alpine Journal The ''Alpine Journal'' (''AJ'') is an annual publication by the Alpine Club of London. It is the oldest mountaineering journal in the world. History The journal was first published on 2 March 1863 by the publishing house of Longman in London, ...
'' amongst others. With the exception of the period of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and its aftermath, Copeland remained in
Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
for the rest of her life, living at Hotel Slon in
Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...
. She died in 1970 and is buried at
Dovje Dovje (; ) is a village in the Municipality of Kranjska Gora in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia, located on the southern slopes of the Karawanks at an elevation of 703 m. It has a rich history and rural tradition and is known as one of the s ...
near
Mojstrana Mojstrana (; ) is a village in the Municipality of Kranjska Gora in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. Geography Mojstrana is located in the Upper Sava Valley at the point where Bistrica Creek joins the Sava River below the main road fro ...
.


Mountaineering

She was a devoted mountaineer who wrote guides to the mountains and managed to climb the Tominškova trail with Joža Čop when she was 88. She was a member of the Skala tourist club and climbed all the peaks with
Mira Marko Debelak Deržaj Mira "Marko" Debelak-Deržaj (26 December 1904 – 27 September 1948) was a Slovenian alpinist, skier, and journalist. Biography She was born as Mira (also Miroslava Marija Štefanija) in Sarajevo in 1904, as the youngest of four children in h ...
and Edo Deržaj, after the war.


Bibliography

*Report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian army during the first invasion of Serbia, 1916 *A bulwark against Germany; the fight of the Slovenes, the western branch of the Jugoslavs, for national existence, 1917 *Dalmatia and the Jugoslav Movement, c1920 *The bells : for orchestra, chorus and solo : op. 35, 1920


References and sources


External resources


Fanny Copeland and the geographical imagination. Scottish Geographical JournalManuscripts relating to the Second World War

The British, Kugy, and Western Slovenia
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Fanny Susan 1872 births 1970 deaths People from Birr, County Offaly 20th-century Irish translators Irish women writers Irish expatriates in Yugoslavia Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire