Ralph Hale Mottram

Ralph Hale Mottram (30 October 1883 – 16 April 1971) was an English writer, known as a novelist, particularly for the Spanish Farm trilogy,^[1] and as a war poet of World War I.

His father was the chief clerk of Gurney's Bank in Norwich and Mottram had an idyllic childhood growing up in 'Bank House' - a magnificent George II mansion on Bank Plain - which was later Barclay's Bank and is now a youth centre. The Mottrams were non-conformist and worshipped at the Octagon Chapel, Norwich in Colegate.^[2]

Mottram went from being a bank clerk in Norwich before the war to becoming lord mayor there in 1953. The Spanish Farm won the 1924 Hawthornden Prize. He also wrote a biography of John Galsworthy.

He was a defender (i.e., a conservationist) of Mousehold Heath^[2] - a large open space in the heart of Norwich. On St. James' Hill, there is a sculpture, dedicated to him, which depicts the skyline of Norwich.^[2]

He is buried in the non-denominational Rosary Cemetery, Norwich.^[1][2] Being a non-member of the established Church of England, Mottram once said that 'I knew, when I was four years old, exactly where I could be buried.'

Works

• Repose and other verses (1907), as J. Marjoram^[3]
• New Poems (1909), as J. Marjoram
• The Spanish Farm (1924), a trilogy with Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four and The Crime at Vanderlynden's
• Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four (1925)
• The Crime at Vanderlynden's (1926)
• Our Mr. Dormer (1927), a trilogy with The Boroughmonger and Castle Island
• The Apple Disdained (1928)
• Ten Years Ago. Armistice and other memories (1928)
• The English Miss (1938)
• A History of Financial Speculation (1929)
• The Boroughmonger (1929)
• A Rich Man's Daughter (1930)
• Europa's Beast (1930)
• The New Providence (1930)
• Poems Old and New (1930)
• Three Men's War (1930), with John Easton and Eric Partridge
• The Lost Christmas Presents (1931)
• Castle Island (1931)
• John Crome of Norwich (1931)
• The Headless Hound and other stories (1931)
• Dazzle (1932)
• At the Sign of The Lame Dog (1933)
• East Anglia (1933)
• Bumphrey's (1934)
• Flower Pot End (1935)
• Journey to the Western Front Twenty Years After (1936)
• The Westminster Bank 1836-1936 (1936)
• Portrait of an Unknown Victorian (1936)
• Old England (1937)
• Time to Be Going (1937)
• Autobiography with a Difference (1939)
• Miss Lavington (1939)
• You Can't Have It Back! (1939)
• Trader's Dream The Romance of the British East India Company (1939)
• Visit of the Princess - a Romance of the 1960s (1946)
• Hibbert Houses, A Record (1947)
• The English Counties Illustrated (1948) (chapters on Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire)
• Norfolk (1948)
• The Glories of Norwich Cathedral (1948)
• Come to the Bower (1949)
• East Anglia, a new guide book (1951)
• The Broads (1952)
• The Part That Is Missing (1952)
• If Stones Could Speak (1953), social history of Norwich
• John Galsworthy (1953), biography
• The Window Seat or Life Observed (1954)
• For Some We Loved (1956), biography of John Galsworthy and his wife
• Another Window Seat (1957)
• Buxton the Liberator (1958), biography of Thomas F. Buxton the abolitionist
• Vanities and Verities (1958)
• Time's Increase (1961)
• To Hell with Crabb Robinson (1962)
• Behind the Shutters (1968)
• 12 Poems (1968)

References

1. Cameron Self, Mousehold Heath, Norwich in Literary Norfolk, 2011. Accessed 24 February 2013.
2. Cameron Self, Ralph Hale Mottram (1883-1971) in Literary Norfolk, 2011. Accessed 24 February 2013.
3. Authors Mos-Moz, New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors. Accessed 24 February 2013.