AustLit

Born in Victoria, daughter of W M K Vale, sometime Attorney-General of Victoria, who apparently signed Ned Kelly's death warrant. They lived at Black Rock (Vic). Beatrice's sister, May Vale, became a watercolour artist and enameller. In 1901 Beatrice married the Rev'd Hopkin Llewellyn Willett Bevan, MA, who was appointed Principal of Medhurst College, Shanghai and held this position 1907-13. While they were there their only son was born. The child contracted TB and as a result of this they left Shanghai. They kept the illness a secret, Beatrice only recording it in her diaries. They returned and Willett took the pastorate of the Kilkenny Congregational Church before moving to Gawler, where he was Congregational minister for many years. The family was very poor, but they managed to send their son to the university. Willett died in 1933, after which Beatrice lived with her son, then at Willard House in Adelaide. She contributed verse to Adelaide newspapers and journals.