Mercia MacDermott explained

Mercia MacDermott
Birth Name:Mercia Adshead
Birth Date:7 April 1927
Birth Place:Plymouth, Devon, England
Death Place:Worthing, West Sussex, England
Nationality:British
Alma Mater:
Occupation:Historian, educator
Employer:
Parents:Geoffrey Palmer Adshead (father)
Olive May (née Orme) Adshead (mother)
Children:Alexandra MacDermott, D.Phil.
Relatives:Samuel Adrian Miles Adshead (brother)
Gwen Adshead (niece)
Laura Adshead (niece)
Thomas Adshead (nephew)

Mercia MacDermott (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

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 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

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. 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 Book: 2000 . Black Lambs and Grey Falcons . Oxford . Berghahn Books . 166–186 . https://archive.org/details/blacklambsgreyfa0000unse/page/166/mode/2up . registration . Mercia MacDermott: A Woman of the Frontier . Allcock, John B. . Young, Antonia . 2nd . Internet Archive.

Positions and awards

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]

Personal life and death

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]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: 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 . Locher, Frances C. . Detroit, Michigan . Gale Research Company . 106 . 1982 . 327 . https://archive.org/details/contemporaryauth106fran/page/327 . 0-8103-1906-3 . 26 March 2019 . Internet Archive .
  2. Book: Record of War Service . University of Edinburgh Roll of Honour 1914-1919 . Edinburgh and London . Oliver and Boyd . 1921 . 120 . Internet Archive . 25 March 2019.
  3. Obituary Notice (Services). The British Medical Journal . 1 . 4135 . 6 April 1940 . 595 . 20316112 . 2176869 .
  4. Book: Allcock, John B. . Antonia Young. Black lambs & grey falcons: women travelling in the Balkans. Berghahn Books. 2000. 168. 978-1-57181-744-0.
  5. http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/en/mm/mm_abstract.htm For Freedom and Perfection. The Life of Yané Sandansky
  6. Allcock, p. 173.
  7. Book: Макдермот, Мерсия. Свобода или смърт: биография на Гоце Делчев. Наука и изкуство. София. 1979. 82956003. Bulgarian. Веселин Измирлиев.
  8. Web site: Foreign Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences . The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 18 March 2019.
  9. The Ship . 2017–2018 . St Anne Society . Alumnae news . 107 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181013062920/http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/images/Merchandise_and_Publications/125888_St_Annes_College_Ship_Magazine.pdf . 2018-10-13 . 85 . 3 April 2019.
  10. Web site: Alexandra MacDermott, D.Phil . University of Houston-Clear Lake..
  11. Book: 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 . Peacock, Scot . Detroit, London . Gale . 167 . 1999 . 1–2 . registration . 0-7876-2669-4. 29 March 2019 . Internet Archive.
  12. Grean, Mike . Renowned China Authority Sam Adshead: Man of History . The Press . 31 October 2009 . 29 March 2019.
  13. Отиде си Мерсия Макдермот - биографката на Васил Левски. Dir.bg., 01.04.2023.
  14. Pundeff . Marin . 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 . December 1962 . 753–754 . 3000597 . 10.2307/3000597 . 164223774 .
  15. Spulber . Nicolas . 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 . 1963 . 234 . 304658 . 10.2307/304658 .
  16. MacKenzie . David . 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 . December 1963 . 392 . 10.1086/243827 . 1899048 .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mercia MacDermott".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.