Catherine Gavin

Dr Catherine Irvine Gavin was a Scottish academic historian, war correspondent, and historical novelist.[1]

Gavin was born in 1907, in Aberdeen and studied history and English at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with first-class honours.[1] After obtaining a doctorate on Louis Philippe of France, in 1931, she took up positions as a history lecturer at the Aberdeen and at the University of Glasgow.[1] She stood as a Unionist candidate in two parliamentary elections in the 1930s, but without success.[1]

During World War II, she worked in France and the Netherlands for Kemsley Newspapers.[1] after the war, she married American advertising executive John Ashcraft and moved to the United States with him.[1] they were together until his death in 1998.

Gavin's works (described by FictionDB as "historical romances") include the following:

She appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 24 June 1978.[2]

The University of Aberdeen awarded her an honorary D Litt in 1986.[1] The Catherine Gavin Room there is named in her honour.[1] The university has a 1940 portrait of her, in oil, by Elizabeth Mary Watt.[3]

She died in 2000, aged 92.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Alexander, Flora (1 April 2000). "Catherine Gavin". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Dr Catherine Gavin". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "BBC - Your Paintings - Catherine Gavin". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.


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