People of the 20th Century
ERNEST MARWICK

Ernest Marwick – who had battled against adversity to become Orkney’s most distinguished scholar of the day – died after a road accident in July, 1977, at the age of 61.

Born in Evie, the elder son of Mr and Mrs Tom Marwick of Furson, he was self taught after ill health forced an end to his formal education at the age of ten.

Until the age of 26, he worked on the farm, but he battled to overcome his handicaps and, in 1941, a world of literature opened up for him when he moved to Kirkwall where he worked for 12 years in the book and newspaper department of the firm of The Leonards.

His achievements were acknowledged in 1953-54 when he won a place at Newbattle Abbey – where the Orkney writer and poet Edwin Muir was warden – to study history, English language and philosophy. It enabled him to join the staff of the Orkney Herald in 1954.

In 1961, he edited the 19th century work Orkney Folklore and Traditions by the Orcadian writer Walter Traill Dennison, and he wrote The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland published in 1975 – the same year that he shared the honour of being one of the last two men to receive the freedom of the burgh from Kirkwall Town Council before the council was abolished.

He complied a full length History of the Orkney People in the Nineteenth Century published by The Orcadian, and made 859 broadcasts for the BBC. And, just a year before his death, the boy who scarcely had a school lesson, was awarded an honorary MA degree from Edinburgh University.