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Vera Larminie

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Vera Larminie
Born20 or 23 June 1881
Sheffield, U.K.
Died12 June 1964 (aged 82)
Hastings, U.K.
Occupation(s)Secretary
Poet
Scientific card indexer
Scientific career
InstitutionsSociety for Psychical Research
British Museum (Natural History)

Vera Larminie (1881–1964) was one of the earliest women to be admitted as a Member of the Royal Geographical Society, in 1913.[1][2] Larminie was also known for a volume of poetry she wrote with her sister, the novelist and Badminton champion Margaret Tragett. In the early 1900s Larminie worked at the Society for Psychical Research.[3][4] In her later life Larminie worked as a scientific card indexer at the British Museum (Natural History).[5]

Early life and family

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Vera Larminie was born on 20 or 23 June 1881 in Sheffield, Yorkshire.[5][6] Her parents were Edward Merry Larminie (c.1841-1905),[7] who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Engineers,[6] and Laura Frances Marshall (née Pollock, 1846–1912),[8][9] who had married in 1878.[10] Larminie's full siblings were: Stanley Graham Larminie (c.1879-1929),[11][12] Lionel Edward Larminie (1883–1926)[13][14] Marcus John Larminie (b. & d. 1884)[15] and Margaret Rivers Larminie (1885–1964, married name Margaret Tragett).[16][17][18]

Larminie's mother Laura had been divorced in 1878 by her first husband Charles Henry Tilson Marshall after she began a romance with Edward Merry Larminie, and she had lost custody of the children from her marriage to Marshall[19] including Larminie's half siblings the writer Maud Diver (1867–1945) and the entomologist Guy Anstruther Knox Marshall (1871–1959). Larminie's maternal grandfather was Sir Frederick Pollock (1783–1870), lawyer and at one time Attorney General.[8]

Career

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Larminie was trained as a secretary, and she was fluent in English and French.[20] Larminie was an assistant secretary at the Society for Psychical Research from 1903 to 1905, when she had to resign on the grounds of ill-health.[3] While working at the Society, Larminie participated in, and helped to record, experiments to investigate Telepathy conducted by Northcote Whitridge Thomas.[4] Larminie also translated work by Joseph Grasset from French to English for the Society's Proceedings.[21]

In 1913, the Royal Geographical Society, after many years of wrestling with the decision, decided to formally admit female members of whom Larminie was among the earliest, being admitted on 24 November 1913.[1][2] Larminie was also elected as a Member of the Geologist's Association in 1919.[22] Larminie's signature appears on page 24 of a social scrapbook album made by the geologist Mary Sophia Johnston (1875–1955) at the start of the twentieth century, alongside Marie Stopes and Dorothea Bate, and many others.[23]

In 1918, Larminie published a book of poetry with her sister Margaret Rivers Larminie, titled Out of the East: And Other Poems. The volume was published as part of the academic publisher Blackwell's 'Adventurer's All' series, intended to showcase new poets. Although reviewed positively, with Vera considered to have a more direct voice than Margaret,[24] this was the only work of poetry that the sisters ever published, and Vera's only published creative work, although Margaret went on to have a successful career as a novelist.[25]

a preserved specimen of the caddisfly species Halesus radiatus, collected by Miss V. Larminie at Newcastle, County Down, Ireland in 1930 (NHMUK014569197)

In 1921, Larminie attempted to emigrate to Canada to work as a smallholder and beekeeper, although initially she had been offered employment as a secretary at the Womans Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[20] She returned to the U.K. after about a year.[26] Larminie did not lose her interest in insects and in 1930 she recorded the caddisfly species Halesus radiatus in County Down, Ireland which was quoted in a scientific paper by Douglas Kimmins in 1932.[27]

In 1932, Larminie moved into accommodation run by Women's Pioneer Housing, 65 Harrington Gardens in Kensington, staying there until about 1937, when she moved to Putney to live with her sister Margaret, who had by then divorced her husband Robert Tragett.[26]

On the 1939 register of England, Larminie was listed as living on independent means in Richmond and working as an unpaid scientific card indexer at the British Museum (Natural History).[5]

In later life, Larminie lived at Bexhill-on-Sea, and she died at Hastings on 12 June 1964.[28]

Works

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  • 1904: (as translator from the French original): Dr. J. Grasset: The History of a Haunted House: Proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research: part XLIX: October 1904: supplement I: pages 464–480
  • 1918: (with Margaret Rivers Larminie): Out of the East: And Other Poems: Adventurers All: A Series of Young Poets Unknown to Fame (no. 17), B.H. Blackwell.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Meetings of the Royal Geographical Society, Session 1913-1914". The Geographical Journal. 43 (1): 99. January 1914. JSTOR 1778833 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ a b Bell, Morag; McEwan, Cheryl (November 1996). "The Admission of Women Fellows to the Royal Geographical Society, 1892-1914; the Controversy and the Outcome". The Geographical Journal. 162 (3): 295-312 [Larminie listed on p. 311]. Bibcode:1996GeogJ.162..295B. doi:10.2307/3059652. JSTOR 3059652 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ a b "Report of the Council for the Year 1905". Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. XII (CCXXVII): 217. March 1906 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ a b Thomas, Northcote W (1905). A Critical and Historical Review of the Evidence for Telepathy, with a Record of New Experiments 1902-1903. London: Alexander Moring Limited: The De La More Press. pp. 158, 164, 169, 210 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b c "1939 England and Wales Register for Vera Lacminie [=Vera Larminie. The birth date on the register was altered from 23 to 20 in pencil.]". ancestry.co.uk.
  6. ^ a b "Vera Larminie in the 1891 England Census". ancestry.co.uk.
  7. ^ "Obituary: Army: Col. Edward Merry Larminie". The Army and Navy Gazette. 3 June 1905. p. 15 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ a b "Loura Frances Pollock [Laura Frances Pollock] in the London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923 [Christening at St Mary the Virgin, Bedfont, Hounslow on 12 October 1846]". ancestry.co.uk.
  9. ^ GRO Register of deaths for England: LARMINIC, Laura F [transcription error = LARMINIE, Laura F]: died December quarter 1912: Kensington District: volume 1a: page 202. Via freebmd.org.uk
  10. ^ GRO Marriage index for England: 1878: Edward Merry Larminie and Laura Frances Marshall, St Georges Hanover Square District, December quarter 1878: volume 1a: page 817. Via freebmd.org.uk
  11. ^ "Stanley G Lawrie [Stanley G Larminie] in the 1901 England Census". ancestry.co.uk.
  12. ^ "Brompton, London, England, Cemetery Registers, 1840-2012 for Stanley Graham Larminie [Stanley Graham Larminie buried 30 December 1929]". ancestry.co.uk.
  13. ^ GRO register of births for England: LARMINIE Lionel Edward: March quarter 1883: Ecclesall Bierlow District: Volume 9c: page 314. via freebmd.org.uk
  14. ^ "Lionel Edward Larminie in the Transvaal Province, South Africa, Estates Death Notice Index, 1855-1976 [died 1926]". ancestry.co.uk.
  15. ^ GRO Register of Births and GRO Register of Deaths for England: LARMINIE Marcus John: born September quarter 1884 Ecclesall Bierlow District: volume 9c: page 313. Died September quarter 1884: Caistor District: volume 7a: page 445. Via freebmd.org.uk
  16. ^ "Margaret R Larminie in the 1891 England Census". www.ancestry.co.uk.
  17. ^ "Margaret Rivers Larminie in the Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 [marriage to Robert Clayton Tragett at St George Hanover Square, 1 June 1911]". ancestry.co.uk.
  18. ^ GRO Register of Deaths for England: TRAGETT Margaret R.: died June quarter 1964: Surrey North West District: volume 5g: page 583. via freebmd.org.uk
  19. ^ "An Indian Officer in the Divorce Court". The Coleshill Chronicle. 16 March 1878. p. 8 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  20. ^ a b "Vera Larminie in the Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924 [25 March 1921]". ancestry.co.uk.
  21. ^ Grasset, J (1904). "The History of a Haunted House". Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (XLIX: October 1904): 464–480.
  22. ^ Wright, W (1919). "Report of the Session". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 30 (4): 207. Bibcode:1919PrGA...30..205W. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(19)80032-9 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
  23. ^ "BGS publications online: GA 'Carreck Archive'. M.S. Johnston album {1}". pubs.bgs.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-04-26.
  24. ^ "Out of the East, and Other Poems: by Vera Larminie and Margaret Rivers Larminie". Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette. p. 4 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  25. ^ "Author/Creatorequals exact phrase LARMINIE, afterwards TRAGETT, Margaret Rivers. [British Library Catalogue search page]". British Library.
  26. ^ a b "65 Harrington Gardens". Women's Pioneer Housing. Retrieved 2024-04-25.
  27. ^ Kimmins, D E (1932). "British Trichoptera, Ephemeroptera, and Plecoptera in 1930 - 1931". The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. July 1932: 157.
  28. ^ England Probate Calendar for 1964: entry for Vera Larminie who died 12 June 1964: page 656. Accessed through probatesearch.service.gov.uk
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