Sir Edward Howard Marsh (18 November 1872 – 13 January 1953) was a British polymath, translator, arts patron and civil servant. He was the sponsor of the Georgian school of poets and a friend to many poets, including

Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...

and

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

. In his career as a civil servant he worked as private secretary to a succession of the United Kingdom's most powerful ministers, particularly

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

. He was a discreet but influential figure within Britain's homosexual community.

Early life

Marsh's father was Howard Marsh, a surgeon and later Master of

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

. His mother, born Jane Perceval, was a granddaughter of prime minister Spencer Perceval, and a daughter of Spencer Perceval, MP, one of the twelve "apostles" recognized by the movement associated with Edward Irving and known as the Catholic Apostolic Church. Jane, a nurse, was one of the founders of the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease; Howard was a surgeon at the hospital. Marsh was educated at Westminster School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied classics under

Arthur Woollgar Verrall Arthur Woollgar Verrall (5 February 1851, Brighton – 18 June 1912, Cambridge) was a British classics scholar associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, and the first occupant of the King Edward VII Chair of English. He was noted for his transl ...

. At Cambridge, he became associated with

R.C. Trevelyan Robert Calverl(e)y Trevelyan (; 28 June 1872 – 21 March 1951) was an English poet and translator, of a traditionalist sort, and a follower of the lapidary style of Logan Pearsall Smith. Life Trevelyan was the second son of Sir George Treve ...

, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, and Maurice Baring. He was a Cambridge Apostle.

Civil servant

In 1896 he was appointed Assistant Private Secretary to Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary. When Chamberlain resigned in 1903, Marsh became Private Secretary to his successor, Alfred Lyttelton. When

became Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1905 during Henry Campbell-Bannerman's first Government, Marsh became Churchill's Private Secretary, beginning an association and friendship that would last until Marsh's death. Marsh would be Churchill's Private Secretary for the next ten years, until Churchill left the Government in 1915. As Randolph Churchill put it, from December 1905, "Marsh was to accompany Churchill to every Government department he occupied: to the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

, the Home Office, the Admiralty, the Duchy of Lancaster, the Ministry of Munitions, the War Office, back to his original Colonial Office and the Treasury." The moves were somewhat irregular as Marsh remained, until 1937, officially a clerk at the Colonial Office, but many exceptions were made, possibly at a cost to Marsh's official advancement. When Churchill left government for the first time in 1915, Marsh became Assistant Private Secretary to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in which position he served until the fall of Asquith's government in December 1916. When Churchill returned to government as Minister of Munitions in 1916, Marsh joined him there as Private Secretary and worked in that position through successive departments until the fall of David Lloyd George's Coalition Government in 1922. When Churchill became

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

in 1924, Marsh joined him there as Private Secretary and remained at the Treasury until the fall of

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

's second government in 1929, when Marsh was returned to work at the Colonial Office. He then served as Private Secretary to every Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1929 until his retirement in 1937. Marsh was knighted upon his retirement and became Sir Edward Marsh.

Literary career

A classical scholar and translator, Marsh edited five anthologies of '' Georgian Poetry'' between 1912 and 1922, and he became

's literary executor, editing his ''Collected Poems'' in 1918. Later in life he published verse translations of La Fontaine and

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, and a translation of Eugène Fromentin's novel ''Dominique''. The sales of the first three ''Georgian Poetry'' anthologies were impressive, ranging between 15,000 and 19,000 copies apiece. Marsh and the critic

J. C. Squire Sir John Collings Squire (2 April 1884 – 20 December 1958) was a British writer, most notable as editor of the ''London Mercury'', a major literary magazine in the interwar period. He antagonised several eminent authors, but attracted a coterie ...

were the group's most important patrons, and it was in Marsh's London rooms that

and Rupert Brooke met for the only time, in June 1914. In 1931, he won a literary contest with a new stanza for ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

'', which repairs the omission of ho
"Adam and Eve Brush Their Teeth"
In 1939, he produced his memoirs, titled ''A Number of People.'' An edited collection of letters, ''Ambrosia and Small Beer,'' appeared in 1964, recording two decades of correspondence with his friend and biographer, Christopher Hassall. Marsh advised Somerset Maugham about his writing between 1935 and 1953 with hundreds of pages of criticism. This is recorded in Ted Morgan's biography of Maugham (1980.) Marsh was also a consistent collector and supporter of the works of the avant-garde artists Mark Gertler, Duncan Grant, David Bomberg and Paul Nash, all of whom were also associated with the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

. In addition to his work editing Churchill's writing, Marsh introduced Siegfried Sassoon to Churchill as a means of aiding the former's career. He was also a close friend of

Ivor Novello Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical ...

References

Sources

* Gilbert, Martin. ''Winston S. Churchill: The Challenge of War 1914–1916''.(c) 1971 C&T Publications, Ltd. * Gilbert, Martin. ''Winston S. Churchill: The Stricken World 1916–1922''.(c) 1975 C&T Publications, Ltd., ''etc.'' * Churchill, Randolph S., and Martin Gilbert. 1966. ''Winston S. Churchill''. London: Heinemann. * Gilbert, Martin. 1992. ''Churchill: A Life''. 1st Owl book ed. New York: Holt. * Hassall, Christopher. 1959. ''A Biography of Edward Marsh''. First American edition. New York: Harcourt, Brace. * Hassall, Christopher, Denis Mathews, and Winston Churchill. 1953. ''Eddie Marsh: Sketches for a Composite Literary Portrait of Sir Edward Marsh''. London: Lund Humphries. * La Fontaine, Jean de, Edward Howard Marsh, and Stephen Gooden. 1931. ''The Fables of Jean de La Fontaine''. London: New York: Heinemann; Random House. * Marsh, Edward Howard. 1939. ''A Number of People: A Book of Reminiscences''. New York, London: Harper & brothers. * Marsh, Edward Howard, and Christopher Hassall. 1965. ''Ambrosia and Small Beer: The Record of a Correspondence between Edward Marsh and Christopher Hassall''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. * Schroder, John, and Joan Hassall. 1970. ''Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts by Rupert Brooke, Edward Marsh & Christopher Hassall''. Cambridge: Rampart Lions Press.

External links

* *
Elizabeth Whitcomb Houghton Collection
containing letters by Marsh
Sir Edward Marsh: an inventory of his collection at the Harry Ransom Center

Schroder Collection (Rupert Brooke), Cambridge University Digital Library
digitised correspondence etc between Marsh, William Denis Browne, and

A collection of Marsh's letters
held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham
Papers of Edward Marsh
particularly containing material related to Churchill, held at Churchill Archives Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, Edward British translators British classical scholars British book editors British memoirists Private secretaries in the British Civil Service LGBT people from England People educated at Westminster School, London Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Companions of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George LGBT civil servants from the United Kingdom 1872 births 1953 deaths