Ernest Marwick

Ernest Walker Marwick (born 1915 Evie, Orkney; died 1977) was an Orcadian writer noted for his writings on Orkney folklore and history.

Marwick's father was a travelling salesman who had a smallholding in the parish of Evie, to the north of Mainland, Orkney. Diagnosed with scoliosis in 1925 when he was ten years old, Marwick could no longer attend school as his days had to be spent lying on a wooden board. He used the time of illness to read extensively.[1]

After Marwick's marriage his home provided a meeting-place for local intellectuals, including George Mackay Brown and Robert Rendall.[2] His Anthology of Orkney Verse was published in 1949.[3]

From 1955 to 1960 he was on the staff of the Orkney Herald newspaper. He subsequently moved to The Orcadian, his writing covering literary subjects.[4] Other media work undertaken by Marwick included broadcasting on local and Scottish national radio programmes.[5]

Ernest Marwick was a founder member of the Orkney Heritage Society.[6]

He died in July 1977, having swerved off a straight road and crashed into a farm steading when driving.[7] In 2015, one hundred years after his birth, Orkney International Science Festival focused attention on the contributions he made to Orkney's heritage.[8]

Selected works

• An Anthology of Orkney Verse (1949)
• The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland (1975)

References

Citations

1. Fergusson (2006), pp. 91, 92
2. Fergusson (2006), p. 94
3. Murray & Murray (2004), p. 40
4. Murray & Murray (2004), pp. 82, 99
5. Ljosland, Ragnhild, "Ernest Marwick the folklorist" (PDF), University of the Highlands and Islands, archived (PDF) from the original on 4 May 2016, retrieved 3 May 2016
6. Robertson (1991), p. xvi
7. Fergusson (2006), p. 259
8. "Programme 2015", Orkney International Science Festival, archived from the original on 4 March 2016

Bibliography

• Fergusson, Maggie (2006), George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, ISBN 978-0-7195-5659-3
• Murray, Rowena; Murray, Brian (2004), Interrogation of Silence: The Writings of George Mackay Brown, John Murray, ISBN 978-0-7195-5929-7
• Robertson, John D. M. (1991), "Introduction", An Orkney anthology: the selected works of Ernest Walker Marwick, Scottish Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-7073-0574-5