Martinalia
Welcome to Martinalia. An academic career generates material which for one reason or another does not get into print. There are public lectures and keynote addresses. Some are never intended for publication. Others are commissioned for projects which never get off the ground. There is material prepared for teaching, which may be useful to colleagues and students involved in similar courses. Some projects seem worth sharing with interested readers even though they remain unfinished, lacking the final polish needed for conventional academic publication. Since 2014 I have used Martinalia to publish essays and research reports.
The term "Martinalia" was coined by my friend Jim Sturgis.
Dedications of Essex churches to St Peter: a glacial hypothesis
This paper advances a hypothesis which suggests that there is a concentration of dedications to St Peter among Essex churches which corresponds to the edge of the ice sheet during the Anglian glaciation 450,000 years ago.
Empire Federalism and Imperial Parliamentary Union, 1820-1870
In mid-nineteenth century Britain (and, to some extent, overseas), there was intermittent discussion of the desirability and possibility of the admission to Westminster of MPs to represent the colonies. The persistence of the idea, and the extent to which it was discussed by writers and politicians, had been forgotten until the publication of this article, "Empire Federalism and Imperial Parliamentary Union, 1820-1870" in Historical Journal, xvi (1973), 65-93.
Romford's Garden Suburb: the origins of Gidea Park
The name 'Gidea Park' was coined in 1909 for a small-scale housing development (in North America, it would be called a 'subdivision') close to the Essex market town of Romford, now part of the Borough of Havering, and included within Greater London.
Queen Victoria defended, 1926
In February 1926, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, published an article defending the reputation of Queen Victoria.
The death of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, November 1944: a conjectural explanation
Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory was killed in an air crash in the French Alps in November 1944. This Note discusses some evidence relating to the disaster, and attempts a conjectural reconstruction of the fatal flight that might explain why the aircraft was several hundred miles from its planned course.
Corporal Alfred Wheel, died 14 March 1945
I never knew my Uncle Alf. He died shortly before I was born. The official explanation was that his death was caused by an accident during Army training, followed by complications in his hospital treatment. This Note draws upon family tradition and uses memorabilia to tell a different story, but one that recalls the experience of bereavement shared by so many households during the Second World War.
Archbishop Davidson, the General Strike and the Revised Prayer Book, 1926-1928: a Victorian stranded out of his time?
During the final two years of his Primacy, Archbishop Randall Davidson experienced a humiliating rebuff when he attempted to intervene in the General Strike of 1926, and saw decades of patient work dashed aside when Parliament refused to validate the Church of England's Revised Prayer Book in 1927-8. This essay, which is loosely linked to "Queen Victoria defended, 1926" (https://www.gedmartin.net/martinalia-mainmenu-3/418-queen-victoria-defended-1926), asks whether he was a Victorian who had become stranded out of his time.
The idealised homes of Gidea Park: some images from the 1911 Exhibition
In 1911, the Gidea Park Exhibition promoted the new Garden Suburb near Romford. Four-bedroom houses were priced at £500, three-bedroom "cottages" at £375. Around one hundred architects, both individuals and partnerships, entered a competition that offered prizes for the best homes, and these were promoted in the Exhibition catalogue. This file of selected images supplements a longer essay, "Romford's Garden Suburb: the origins of Gidea Park": https://www.gedmartin.net/martinalia-mainmenu-3/420-origins-of-gidea-park.
Protestants, Presbyterians and Partition: a discussion of Ulster terminology
Studies of Northern Ireland generally refer to two categories of people, 'Catholics' and 'Protestants'. However, the Protestant population comprised two main groups, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and this Note argues that recognition by historians that these communities were not automatic allies will help to create a more nuanced interpretation of the Partition of Ireland. In particular, it may not be generally recognised that Presbyterians were the largest Protestant denomination in the nine counties of Ulster.
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven – or was it Hivven?
In eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, hymns and poems generally rhymed "heaven" with "given" or "forgiven", suggesting an alternative popular pronunciation of the word itself. "Heaven" also had two specific features which limited the scope for poetic pairings. Purists insisted that the second part of the word should be clipped or swallowed, making it almost monosyllabic. In addition, it referred to a majestic afterlife, and was treated as a taboo word that required to be rhymed in a respectful, even reverent manner. These constraints retreated in Victorian times. The spread of basic literacy seems to have encouraged people to voice words as they saw them on the page, and "heaven" became bisyllabic. At the same time, less literal interpretations of the Bible encouraged a relaxed and hedonistic use of the concept, whimsically reflected in popular verse. In the absence of sound recordings before the invention of Edison's phonograph, it is impossible to know precisely how any words were pronounced. Hence this exploration of "heaven" is necessarily inconclusive, but it strays into some curious byways in its search.
More Articles …
- Magdalene College Cambridge Notes: Election Night, 15 October 1964
- Social interaction of Canadian and British political elites, 1849-1894
- Essex history on www.gedmartin.net
- The concept of Natal history: a useful tool for exploring South Africa's past? (1994)
- Archival evidence and John A. Macdonald biography
- Identity and Interaction: a defence of Natal history
- Two Canberra historians: W.K. Hancock and C.M.H. Clark
- An interview with Edgar Harry Brookes, 1976
- Magdalene College Cambridge and British Jewry
- Magdalene College Cambridge Notes: the Palestine connection
- Magdalene College Cambridge Notes: Tedder, Leigh-Mallory and D-Day
- Lord Bury's civilization scorecard for Canada's First Nations, 1855
Page 1 of 16