Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Martin, Violet Florence
MARTIN, VIOLET FLORENCE (1862–1915), novelist under the pseudonym of Martin Ross, was born at Ross House, co. Galway, 11 June 1862. She was the eleventh and youngest daughter of James Martin, D.L., head of the ancient family of Martin—one of ‘the tribes of Galway’—which has been seated at Ross for several centuries; hence the pen-name which she adopted. The record of her family is one of much literary and artistic activity. Her mother, Anna Selina Fox—a lady of much wit and wide culture—was a granddaughter of Lord Chief Justice Charles Kendal Bushe [q.v.], ‘silver-tongued Bushe’, the wittiest man of his time, who is still remembered for his ‘incorruptible’ opposition to the Union with England. Among her kinsfolk on her father's side were the poet, Aubrey Thomas de Vere [q.v.], and Miss Rose Barton, the water-colourist; on her mother's, William Gorman Wills [q.v.], painter and dramatist. Her brother, Robert, was well known as the author of ‘Bally-Hooley’ and other Irish songs.
The Ross estate, once of great extent, suffered severely during the famine of 1845, and for a time Mr. Martin took up journalism and became leader-writer to the London Morning Herald. The evil time tided over, he returned to Ross and lived there until his death in 1872. After her father's death Violet Martin's childhood was spent in Dublin. Her family belonged to the Protestant church, and in that city and especially at a Sunday school which she attended she gained the deep comprehension of the strata of Dublin society so faithfully delineated in the opening chapters of The Real Charlotte. She was educated at home, and at the Alexandra College, Dublin, and early showed remarkable proficiency in music and in English literature. Her life, unlike that of many Irish writers, was mainly lived in Ireland, at Ross and at Drishane, the home of her cousin and collaborator, Miss Edith Œnone Somerville; but the two cousins made many tours, abroad and elsewhere, which often yielded them amusing matter for their literary work. In spite of exceeding short-sight, Miss Martin was a fearless rider to hounds. She had a very serious hunting accident in 1898, from the effects of which she never thoroughly recovered, and it possibly contributed to the illness of which she died, at Cork 21 December 1915.
Quiet, and habitually rather reserved in manner, Miss Martin, in congenial society, was a brilliant talker and an amusing mimic, and the charm of her personality, together with the sweetness and sympathy that were marked features of her character, won her a host of devoted friends. From the knowledge of hunting that she shared with her collaborator (who was for twelve years master of the West Carbery foxhounds) sprang many of the books associated with this literary alliance, the best known of which is Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899).
The books of these writers picture the life of what has sometimes been contemptuously called the ‘English garrison’, though no class contained persons more truly devoted to Ireland. The Real Charlotte, their first serious novel (1894), is admittedly one of the best pictures of this life that has ever been presented. How the society of that day is passing out of existence is well described in Mount Music (1919) and An Enthusiast (1921), which, though published after Miss Martin's death, are understood to have benefited by her inspiration. In these books, and in The Irish R.M. series, the future historian of Ireland will find valuable illustrations of the real life of the Irish country-side.
Miss Martin's writings, apart from those written jointly with her cousin, show the rare combination of a penetrating sense of humour with a refined and subtle literary style and a profound and sympathetic perception of character, especially of Irish character. These qualities are specially notable in her essays, the best examples of which are to be found in Some Irish Yesterdays (1906) and Stray-Aways (1920). These two volumes are mainly autobiographical and contain much of Violet Martin's individual writing. All her essays are reminiscent of times which had their own great and peculiar charm.
[The autobiographical books alluded to; private information; personal knowledge.]