Bertha Ritchie was born in 1878 in Newcastle, England, a town near the border with Scotland.  Her father was an engineer on a screw steamer who died at sea around 1880 leaving a wife and two daughters.  Bertha’s mother, Annie, emigrated with her young family to the United States in the mid-1880’s and settled in Galveston, Texas.  (Annie was ultimately married and widowed three times.)

The family enjoyed the society and vibrancy of Galveston and lived in a fine house at Fifth and Broadway, near the Gulf.  Bertha was courted by a British gentleman (name omitted intentionally) 14 years her senior and they were married in 1898.  Her first child, Sam, was born in 1899.

Life was normal for a young married woman until September 8, 1900 when what would be called the Storm of 1900 occurred and Galveston was changed forever.  When the weather became threatening, Bertha would not relinquish Sam to his nanny, a strong black woman who had a better chance of protecting the baby than his frail mother.  Instead, Bertha kept the baby with her and in the floodwater she was struck unconscious by debris.  The baby was washed from her arms.  Bertha was snatched from the water by her very long hair and pulled onto some floating debris where she managed to cling until the waters abated.  The wind and water had torn off her clothing and she wandered the devastated streets of Galveston looking for family wearing only her corset.

The Storm of 1900 remains the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Bertha saved her hair in bags for years and became hysterical during storms.  For years, she looked in every baby carriage she passed to see if somehow Sam had been found and was still alive.  His little body was never discovered and I don’t know if the bodies of her mother or sisters were either.  They are listed under Annie Benn and Helena Ritchie in the roster of known deaths due to the Storm.

Annie Benn’s house was near the Gulf and the land it was built on was eroded during the storm.  Bertha lost all her family and their property in the space of a day.  At least her husband survived the ordeal and they had another child in 1902.

Their return to whatever kind of normalcy then existed in Galveston was short lived.  Bertha was widowed in 1903.  She never had to earn her own way and as a young widow, should have returned to live with her family.  Her husband left her no money and all of her family was gone.  Months later, an old friend of her late husband, John Clark (JT) came looking for him and found Bertha and her child in a bad state.

JT had always considered Bertha a beautiful woman and after some discussion about the kind of life she could expect with him, they left for Johannesburg, South Africa.  She would work with him side by side and they would earn their living by their wits, charm and talent.  That they were married in Johannesburg and not before the voyage would have caused a scandal but who was alive to scandalize?

In Africa, JT proceeded to tattoo Bertha who was professionally called Princess Beatrice.  She had George Washington on the front of her chest and the Last Supper on her back.  Spider webs were on her shoulders and a memorial to her mother and sisters on an upper arm.

JT had tattoo shops in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg and also in Sidney, Australia.  (See Professor Clark’s story.)

Their only child and my father, Francis John, was born in Johannesburg in 1906.  Bertha had a good life in Johannesburg.  They had colorful friends in related occupations and sufficient money to live well for the day.

In 1914, the family left South Africa for the United States.  In 1915, JT took his son, Francis, to England to visit family and to work.

In 1918 JT became ill in Montreal.  Bertha had a premonition that JT was near death and was able to get to Montreal before he died.  She found herself a widow for the second time at the age of 40.

On an anniversary of JTs death, Bertha put the following message in Billboard:  (I quote from her original text.)

“In Memoriam:  In the loving memory of Jack Clark, Africa and Europe, Famous, Original Tattooed Man, Tattooed Scalp, who died in Montreal, April 14^th, 1918.  ‘Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still.’  Princess Beatrice”

After JT’s death, Bertha found places for her two sons and found work where she could.  She and Francis lived in Canada while her older son stayed in Chicago.  Francis was sent to work on a farm at the age of 12 to earn his room and board.

Bertha died in the 1950’s while living with friends in Brantford, Ontario.

I knew her for a few months when I was a small child.  She wrote hundreds of poems, some of them good.  Her family pet name was Mimi.

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