Ernest Walker Marwick (1915–1977) was a Scottish writer, folklorist and antiquarian particularly noted for his texts 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]
A founder member of the Orkney Heritage Society,[6] Marwick died in July 1977, having swerved off a straight road and crashed into a farmstead while 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)