Jump to content

Mercia MacDermott

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mercia MacDermott
Born
Mercia Adshead

(1927-04-07)7 April 1927
Plymouth, Devon, England
Died28 March 2023(2023-03-28) (aged 95)
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Historian, educator
Employers
Spouse
James Macdermott
(m. 1948; div. 1964)
ChildrenAlexandra MacDermott, D.Phil.
Parent(s)Geoffrey Palmer Adshead (father)
Olive May (née Orme) Adshead (mother)
RelativesSamuel Adrian Miles Adshead (brother)
Gwen Adshead (niece)
Laura Adshead (niece)
Thomas Adshead (nephew)

Mercia MacDermott (née Adshead; Bulgarian: Мерсия Макдермот; 7 April 1927 – 28 March 2023) was an English writer and historian. She was known for her books on Bulgarian history.

Early life

[edit]

Mercia was born on 7 April 1927 in Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom.[1] Her father was Geoffrey Palmer Adshead, a Royal Navy surgeon captain,[2][3] and her mother was Olive May (née Orme) Adshead, a teacher. Due to her father's work in the navy, she spent some of her early years in Weihai, China, where Mercia learned Mandarin Chinese.[4] She grew up in Ditchling and later was educated at Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire and St Anne's College, Oxford University where she read Russian Literature.[5] In the summer of 1947, while participating in a youth brigade in Yugoslavia with other English students, she first met with Bulgarians, among whom was the poet Pavel Matev.

In 1948, she graduated with an MA degree from Oxford and visited Bulgaria to participate in the international youth brigade building the Koprinka Reservoir. As a foreign udarnik, Mercia was invited along with other international participants to meet Georgi Dimitrov in the Euxinograd palace on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. While working at the Koprinka reservoir, Mercia met her future husband James MacDermott. Returning to the United Kingdom in 1948, MacDermott enrolled in a Bulgarian language course at the University of London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies.[6][7]

Career

[edit]

Mercia MacDermott visited and lived in Bulgaria from 1957 to 1989. From 1963 to 1964 and from 1973 to 1979 she was a teacher at the English Language High School in Sofia. MacDermott subsequently lectured on the Bulgarian national liberation movement in the region of Macedonia at Sofia University's Faculty of History.[1] She was elected a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1987.[8] In 2007, Sofia University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate.

MacDermott's activity is described by Waller, Diane in Allcock, John B.; Young, Antonia, eds. (2000). "Mercia MacDermott: A Woman of the Frontier". Black Lambs and Grey Falcons (2nd ed.). Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp. 166–186 – via Internet Archive.

Positions and awards

[edit]

From 1958 to 1973, Mercia MacDermott was the chairwoman of the London-based British–Bulgarian Friendship Society. An honorary citizen of Karlovo and Blagoevgrad, she was also the bearer of a number of Bulgarian state decorations.[9][1]

Personal life and death

[edit]

The MacDermotts divorced in 1964. Their daughter Alexandra (born 1952) has been a professor in physical chemistry at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Texas.[10] Her brother, Samuel Adrian Miles Adshead (1932–2009), was a distinguished sinologist and former professor of history at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.[11][12]

MacDermott died on 28 March 2023, at the age of 95.[13][14]

Bibliography

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Locher, Frances C., ed. (1982). "MacDERMOTT, Mercia 1927–". Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields. Vol. 106. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company. p. 327. ISBN 0-8103-1906-3. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ "Record of War Service". University of Edinburgh Roll of Honour 1914-1919. Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd. 1921. p. 120. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ "Obituary Notice (Services)". The British Medical Journal. 1 (4135): 595. 6 April 1940. JSTOR 20316112. PMC 2176869.
  4. ^ Allcock, John B.; Antonia Young (2000). Black lambs & grey falcons: women travelling in the Balkans. Berghahn Books. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-57181-744-0.
  5. ^ For Freedom and Perfection. The Life of Yané Sandansky. www.kroraina.com. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  6. ^ Allcock, p. 173.
  7. ^ Макдермот, Мерсия (1979). Свобода или смърт: биография на Гоце Делчев (in Bulgarian). Translated by Веселин Измирлиев. София: Наука и изкуство. OCLC 82956003.
  8. ^ "Foreign Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences". The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Alumnae news" (PDF). The Ship. No. 107. St Anne Society. 2017–2018. p. 85. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  10. ^ "Alexandra MacDermott, D.Phil". University of Houston-Clear Lake.
  11. ^ Peacock, Scot, ed. (1999). "ADSHEAD, S(amuel) A(drian) M(iles)". Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields. Vol. 167. Detroit, London: Gale. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-7876-2669-4. Retrieved 29 March 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ Grean, Mike (31 October 2009). "Renowned China Authority Sam Adshead: Man of History". The Press. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  13. ^ "Отиде си Мерсия Макдермот - биографката на Васил Левски". Dir.bg. 1 April 2023.
  14. ^ "In Memoriam Mercia MacDermott (Adshead)" (PDF). The Ship (St Anne College - University of Oxford). No. 113. St Anne Society. 2023–2024. p. 69. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  15. ^ Pundeff, Marin (December 1962). "BOOK REVIEW: Mercia MacDermott, A History of Bulgaria, 1393–1885, London: Allen & Unwin, 1962, 354 pp.40 s. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962, 354 pp. $8.75". Slavic Review. 21 (4): 753–754. doi:10.2307/3000597. JSTOR 3000597. S2CID 164223774.
  16. ^ Spulber, Nicolas (1963). "BOOK REVIEW: Mercia MacDermott, A History of Bulgaria, 1393-1885, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962, $8.75". Slavic and East European Journal. 7 (2): 234. doi:10.2307/304658. JSTOR 304658.
  17. ^ MacKenzie, David (December 1963). "REVIEWED WORK: Mercia MacDermott, A History of Bulgaria, 1393-1885, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962, $8.75". The Journal of Modern History. 35 (4): 392. doi:10.1086/243827. JSTOR 1899048.
[edit]