R. H. Mottram

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Ralph Hale Mottram (1883-1971) was an English writer, known as a novelist, particularly for the Spanish Farm books, 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.

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

He was a defender of Mousehold Heath - a large open space in the heart of Norwich. On St. James' Hill, there is a sculpture which depicts the skyline of Norwich which is dedicated to him.

He is buried in the Rosary Cemetery, Norwich. Mottram once said that 'I knew, when I was four years old, exactly where I could be buried.'

[edit] Works

Repose and other verses (1907), as J. Marjoram
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 1960's (1946)
Hibbert Houses, A Record (1947)
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)