Georgina Ballantine

Georgina Ballantine was born on 25 November 1889, in Caputh, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Her mother was Christina White and her father was James Ballantine, a registrar and ghillie.^{[citation needed]}

Ballantine worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse from 1914 to 1919, in Perth,^[1] London and Bapaume, France. It was in France that she was decorated by the Red Cross. She later worked as registrar in Caputh.^[2]

On 7 October 1922, Ballantine was fishing with her father on Glendelvine Water, a salmon fishing pool on the River Tay. Following a two-hour struggle, she landed a 64-pound (29 kg) salmon, the largest recorded taken from a British river with rod and line,^[2][3] half Ballantine's own weight.^[4] The salmon, known as the Great Tay Salmon, was 54 inches (140 cm) in length and 28.5 inches (72 cm) in girth.^[5]

Her record was unchallenged until 2007, when another female angler, Bev Street, broke the record for largest caught freshwater fish by landing a 66lb catfish at Bluebell Lakes in Peterborough.^[6] Ballantine retains the record for the largest rod caught salmon.^[7]

A watercolour painting by A. J. Rennie depicting the fish hung in the dining room of the Flyfishers Club in London, despite the fact that Ballantine, as a woman, would not be admitted to the gentlemen's club.^[8]

Ballantine's salmon was donated to Perth Royal Infirmary, and a cast was donated to the Pall Mall angling emporium.^[9] A model is exhibited in a display in Perth Museum with a commentary in the voice of Ballantine.^[2][10]

In her later life, Ballantine experienced severe arthritis in both legs, and as a result they were both amputated.^[2] Ballantine died in 1970, aged 80, in Caputh.^[2]