John Saltmarsh

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Dr John Saltmarsh (born 7 May 1908, Cambridge, England, died 25 September 1974), was a historian and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

The son of Winnifred and H.A. Saltmarsh, he grew up at Oakington, near Cambridge, where his father farmed four hundred acres.

==Education--

He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, and won a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge at the age of seventeen. He gained a First in History.

[edit] Career

Saltmarsh was elected as a Fellow of King's at the age of twenty-two. He became a full lecturer for the College and for Cambridge University in 1937 and was appointed as college librarian.

At the start of the Second World War, he was recruited to work at Bletchley Park. After the war, he returned to King's College. In the years that followed, he lectured in Economic History for the University, and published several works. His history of King's College itself was published in the Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire. His book 'Plague and Economic Decline in the Later Middle Ages' was influential.

Saltmarsh retired from college teaching in 1971, fell seriously ill in 1972, and died on 25 September 1974 at the age of sixty-six. He was unmarried, and had spent most of his life in the same set of rooms at Kings, where he was looked on as an eccentric bachelor don. His set of rooms was much envied, and to avoid the angst of deciding who should have use of them after his death the College Council decided to make the set into a communal area. What is now know as The Saltmarsh Suite (Dining Room and Reception Room) at King's College is his old set, and is named after him in honour.