Born in England, Partington moved with her family to Oakland, California, as a girl. She studied under her father J. H. E. Partington, who was a well-known portraitist in the San Francisco Bay area. Gertrude Partington worked as an illustrator for the San Francisco Examiner before traveling to Paris for further study at the Académie Delecluse. She learned to make dry point etchings. Partington returned to San Francisco and opened a studio in the early 20th century. She was a cofounder of the California Society of Etchers and exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association. In 1917 she married the artist Herman Oliver Albright. The Delaware Art Museum has many works by Partington because she was a cousin of Samuel Bancroft, who bequeathed his collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings (and other works) to the Museum in 1935.
