During this period she travelled in Europe.

‘…because if you live in England, particularly in the south of England, it is easier to go on the continent than to go up to Scotland… we used to have holidays in Switzerland and Norway…’

Some of Winifred Curtis's travel brochures from the 1930s - enlarge

Photographs from her european travels in the 1930s

In 1931 she gained a Cambridge Teaching Certificate and taught Biology at girls high schools in Manchester and Hampstead.

‘It was Manchester and it wasn’t at all an academic school…In some ways I’m very glad I went there but the best part of Manchester was getting away from it. You’d go out at weekends and walk over the moors. Beautiful country but you were black from toes to knees with the soot.‘

Winifred's map of Manchester

In 1939 she gained her MSc degree for research on the grass, Spartinia townsendii, and dandelions. In the same year she migrated to Australia with her parents on the Blue Funnel line ship T.S.S. ‘Ascanius’

‘No Frills, very nice cabins and a very bad tempered captain on the last ‘Blue Funnel’ voyage I had. He was heard at one time to say

“what are passengers? Cargo that eat!” ’

Passenger list from the voyage to Australia on 'TSS Ascanius' of Winifred Curtis and her parents in August 1939

Winifred Curtis on steamer at Bouveret (Haute Savoie)

Above Chebres with the mountains in the background.

At Vevey in front of the fountain.

Winifred Curtis in front of Gare Ouchy, Lausanne

Winifred in her parent's garden in Reading 1935