Margaret Rivers Tragett (née Larminie) was a former English badminton player. She competed in the All England Championships from 1902 until 1933 and was the winner of eleven titles. She gained fifteen caps for England and was also editor of the 'Gazette' a popular badminton publication.[1]

Margaret Larminie Tragett
Personal information
CountryEngland
Born(1885-09-06)6 September 1885
Jamaica
Died31 March 1964(1964-03-31) (aged 78)
London

After marrying Robert Tragett in 1911 she competed under her married name of Margaret Tragett.[2]

[3]

Medal Year Event
  1911 Women's singles
  1911 Mixed doubles
  1912 Women's singles
  1914 Women's doubles
  1922 Women's doubles
  1923 Women's doubles
  1923 Mixed doubles
  1925 Women's doubles
  1927 Women's doubles
  1928 Women's singles
  1928 Mixed doubles

Career as a writer

edit

Publishing using her maiden name Margaret Rivers Larminie,[4] Tragett wrote a series of generally well-reviewed novels, a badminton instruction manual, and a volume of poetry with her sister Vera Larminie. On Tragett's 1925 novel, Soames Green, a chronicle of a country solicitor's family, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph's reviewer said: 'Miss Larminie is undoubtedly a Master - or should it be Mistress - of language,' although they did not consider the plot to match her skill.[5] Tragett's 1928 novel Galatea was about the consequences of a woman named Emmeline winning an enormous amount of money in a sweepstakes, which Country Life described as ' a really distinguished and utterly charming story.'[6] The Sketch's reviewer Alan Kemp also found Galatea agreeable but described Tragett as a 'workmanlike' novelist.[7] Tragett's 1933 novel Doctor Sam, about a man who marries a widowed mother and becomes a good stepfather, was reviewed positively in the Western Mail: 'Miss Larminie scorns affectation and, therefore, writes with superlative ease. She is so charmingly natural that one feels her dialogue could not be otherwise than what it is.'[8] Tragett's last novel, Gory Knight, was a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers' 1935 novel Gaudy Night.[9]

1918: [with Vera Larminie]: Out of the East: And Other Poems: Adventurers All: A Series of Young Poets Unknown to Fame [no. 17], B.H. Blackwell.

1922: Search [a novel]: London, Chatto & Windus

1923: Echo: London, Chatto & Windus

1924: Deep Meadows: London, Chatto & Windus

1925: Soames Green: London, Chatto & Windus

1926: Badminton for Beginners, etc.: London, Chatto & Windus

1928: Galatea: London, Chatto & Windus

1932: The Visiting Moon: London, John Lane

1933: Doctor Sam: London, John Lane

1937: [with Jane Langslow]: Gory Knight [a novel]: London, Longmans & Co.

References

edit
  1. ^ Davis, Pat (1983). Guinness Book of Badminton. Guinness Superlatives Ltd. ISBN 0-85112-271-X.
  2. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Times Archives". Oxfordshire Libraries.
  4. ^ "Women in Sport: Badminton Champion, Lawn Tennis Player and Golfer: Mrs R.C. Tragett". Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 22 September 1923. p. 49 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Books of the Day: Soames Green". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 19 March 1925. p. 3 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ S. "Galatea, by Margaret Rivers Larminie". Country Life. pp. 378–379 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ Kemp, Alan (28 March 1928). "The Literary Lounger: Too Many Cousins". The Sketch. p. 38 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "Books of the Week: Healthy Fare". Western Mail. 30 March 1933. p. 13 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "The Mystery of Gory Knight". Martin Edwards Books. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  10. ^ "Author / Creator equals exact phrase LARMINIE, afterwards TRAGETT, Margaret Rivers [British Library Catalogue search page]". www.bl.uk.