Dr John Saltmarsh (7 May 1908 – 25 September 1974) was a historian and Fellow of

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

. The son of Winnifred and H. A. Saltmarsh, he grew up at

Oakington Oakington is a small rural Anglo-Saxon village north-west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire in England, and belongs to the administrative district of South Cambridgeshire. Since 1985 the village has formed part of the parish of Oakington and West ...

, near

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, where his father farmed four hundred acres.

Education

He was born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and educated at St Faith's School, Gresham's School,

Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to 3 ...

, and won a scholarship to

at the age of seventeen. He gained a First in History.

Career

Saltmarsh was elected as a Fellow of King's at the age of twenty-two. He became a full lecturer for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

in 1937 and was appointed as college librarian. At the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he was recruited to work at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...

, but after the war he returned to King's. In the years that followed, he lectured in Economic History for the University and published several works. His history of King's College itself forms part of the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

of Cambridgeshire, while his book ''Plague and Economic Decline in the Later Middle Ages'' was influential. One of Saltmarsh's special interests was in the history of the

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

. He used regularly to conduct parties around it, and tell stories of specific discoveries he had made - including some about the remains of bones from the meals that masons working on the chapel had brought along with them, several hundred years earlier. Some of these finds were made after he had flown over

, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, in

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

aircraft, and examined detailed photographs made from such flights. Saltmarsh retired from college teaching in 1971, fell seriously ill in 1972, and died on 25 September 1974 at the age of sixty-six. He was unmarried and had spent most of his life in the same set of rooms at King's, where he was looked on as an eccentric bachelor don. His set of rooms was much envied, and after his death to avoid deciding who should have them the College Council made them into common rooms, now called the Saltmarsh Suite (dining room and reception room) in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saltmarsh, John 1908 births 1974 deaths People educated at Gresham's School Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Bletchley Park people 20th-century English historians English male non-fiction writers Contributors to the Victoria County History People from Oakington 20th-century English male writers