Laurence Hilary Macklin, School and undergraduate diaries. English, 1920-4

Laurence Hilary Macklin (1902-69) was educated at Christ Church Cathedral Choir School, Oxford, and then at Felsted School. He came up to St John’s College in 1921 to read Classics, being placed in the third class in part I of the Classical Tripos in 1923. He then switched to English, achieving a third class in the English Tripos of 1924, and graduated BA. Macklin was an able oarsman and rowed in the First Boat of the Lady Margaret Boat Club in 1923 and 1924.

The first volume of Macklin’s diary (labelled ‘Vol. III’) covers 17 Sep. 1920 to 3 Sep. 1922 i.e. his last year at Felsted and his first year at Cambridge. The second volume (labelled ‘Vol. IV’) covers his second and third years at Cambridge, from 3 Sep. 1922 to 15 Feb. 1924. The entries detail Macklin’s rowing exploits, his social life (including occasional undergraduate excesses and pranks, and covering his friendship with George, Alice and Margaret Tait), and occasional academic work. Loose at the end of the second volume is a newspaper cutting recording the marriage of Macklin and Alice Tait at St Paul’s Cathedral, Calcutta, in November 1926, and a letter to Alice from Brian and Mollie, dated 18 Apr. 1972, regarding Macklin’s diaries.