Ralph Hale Mottram

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Ralph Hale Mottram

poet of World War I
.

Early life

Mottram was born in

Gurney's Bank, later taken over by Barclays Bank (and now a youth centre). He was educated at the City of Norwich School. Mottram's father James was the chief clerk of Gurney's Bank, and was trustee of the marriage settlement of Ada Galsworthy, wife of novelist John Galsworthy. Ada encouraged the young Ralph Mottram to begin writing, and he published two slim volumes of poetry which appeared in 1907 and 1909 under the pseudonym of "J. Marjoram".[3]
He remained close friends of the Galsworthys and would later write personal portraits of them.

First World War

Mottram was posted to the

Boulogne
and was promoted to lieutenant. In 1918 he married Margaret (Madge) Allan. They had two sons and a daughter and were married for over fifty years.

Career

Mottram went from being a bank clerk in Norwich before the war, to becoming

United States Airforce division based in Norfolk. He worked with others towards the foundation of the University of East Anglia which opened in 1963, and which made him an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1966. As a conservationist, he was a defender of Mousehold Heath,[2] a large open space in the heart of Norwich, and was a chairman of the Norwich Society. On St James' Hill overlooking the city, there is a memorial plinth dedicated to him, which depicts the skyline of Norwich.[2]

Death

After his wife's death in 1970, Mottram moved to King's Lynn to live with his daughter and died the following year. He is buried in the non-denominational Rosary Cemetery, Norwich,[1][2] where a headstone stands in memory of the couple and their three children. Being a non-member of the established Church of England, Mottram once said: "I knew, when I was four years old, exactly where I could be buried."

Works

References

  1. ^ a b Cameron Self, Mousehold Heath, Norwich in Literary Norfolk, 2011. Accessed 24 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d Cameron Self, Ralph Hale Mottram (1883-1971) in Literary Norfolk, 2011. Accessed 24 February 2013.
  3. ^ "The R. H. Mottram letters". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  4. ^ Patrick Reardon (10 December 2015). "The underappreciation of R. H. Mottram's World War I novels". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  5. ^ Authors Mos-Moz, New General Catalogue of Old Books and Authors. Accessed 24 February 2013.

Further reading

  • Hugh Cecil, The Flower of Battle: British Fiction Writers of the First World War (Secker & Warburg, 1995); chapter 5.
  • Gilbert Henry Fabes, The First Editions of Ralph Hale Mottram (Myers & Co., 1934); includes two essays and a short story by RHM.
  • Rachel Young, A Mottram Miscellany (The Larks Press, 1997); letters written to the Mottram family, 1730-1900.
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