Sir Theodore Martin


1816 - 1909

Author and biographer. Born in Edinburgh, the son of a solicitor, Martin was educated at the High School and University there. He worked as a solicitor for a time in Edinburgh, but moved to London in 1846. There he contributed to literary magazines under the pseudonym Bon Gaultier. In 1855, using the same name, he published a popular collection of ballads jointly with Professor William Aytoun (1818-65).

His other works included a translation of Ohlenschlager's dramas, Correggio (1854) and Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp (1857), of the poems and ballads of Goethe (1858), the complete works of Catullus (1861) and of Horace (1882), together with translations of Dante, Faust Heine and Schiller. Martin also wrote biographies of his friend Aytoun (1867), of HRH Prince Albert, in five volumes (1874-80), Lord Lynhurst (1883) and Princess Alice (1888). On the completion of his biography of the Prince Consort, a grateful Queen Victoria knighted him. He maintained a friendly relationship with the queen until her death and, in 1908, published his personal recollections of her as Queen Victoria as I knew her.

Martin was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Edinburgh and served as Rector of the University of St Andrews (1880-84). His wife, who he married in 1851, was the actress Helena Faucit.


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