TheRev. William Keble Martin (9 July 1877 – 26 November 1969)[1] was aChurch of Englandpriest,botanist andbotanical illustrator, known for hisConcise British Flora in Colour, published in May 1965 when the author was 88.[2]
The book was the result of 60 years' meticulous fieldwork and exquisite painting skills, and became an immediate best-seller. He completed over 1,400 paintings in colour and many black-and-white drawings before the book was finally published.[3]
Keble Martin was born inRadley,Oxfordshire, the grandson of DrGeorge Moberly, headmaster ofWinchester and laterBishop of Salisbury. He was brother to architect Arthur Campbell Martin CVO FRIBA (1875–1963) and was also connected toJohn Keble of theOxford Movement. His father was appointed as the Rector ofDartington, near Totnes, when William was 14 years old.[5]
He was educated atMarlborough, and went up toChrist Church, Oxford in 1896 to read Greek Philosophy and Botany. He trained for the church atCuddesdon Theological College. After ordination, he worked in industrial parishes in the north and Midlands (one of these wasWath-upon-Dearne, the subject of his first book) and, in the First World War, as achaplain in France. In 1921 he was offered the benefice ofHaccombe andCoffinswell inDevon and in 1934 became the incumbent ofSt Michael and All Angels,Great Torrington. (He was theArchpriest of Haccombe and Rector of Coffinswell.) Keble Martin saw a vision of a new church in a dream, and his brother architect transformed the dream into reality - now a listed building, St Luke the Evangelist Church atMilber,Newton Abbot is remarkable for its exceptional interior space and extraordinary plan with three angled naves, linked by arcades with granite columns, which converge on the central altar. The exterior walls are white render with a pyramidal copper-clad roof on a squat square tower. Keble Martin retired in 1949 at the age of 72, but continued to work in the church.[6]
He was elected a Fellow of theLinnean Society in 1928, and later edited with G. T. Fraser the first volume of a comprehensiveFlora of Devon (1939). In June 1966 he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) fromExeter University.[7] Four of his designs for an issue of wild flower stamps were accepted by theRoyal Mail and issued in April 1967.[2] He published his autobiography,Over the Hills, shortly before he died in 1969 at the age of 92 atWoodbury, East Devon.
William Keble Martin married twice: in 1909 Violet Chaworth-Musters (d. 1963) and then in 1965 Florence Lewis. His children were three daughters and two sons.[4]
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