Background
Henry Marten was born with his twin sister Isabel in Kensington, London. He was the younger son of Sir Alfred Marten and his wife Patricia.
Henry Marten was born with his twin sister Isabel in Kensington, London. He was the younger son of Sir Alfred Marten and his wife Patricia.
In 1895, he graduated with a first class degree in modern history, and accepted an offer from Edmond Warre to return to Eton to teach history.
Marten entered Eton College, and from there matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford in 1891. In 1912, he published The Groundwork of British History with his co-author, George Townsend Warner, which became "one of the most used school textbooks of the first half of the twentieth century". With East. H. Carter, he wrote a school textbook for younger children, in several volumes, titled simply "Histories".
Other collaborative works included The Teaching of History in 1938.
In 1925, Marten narrowly missed becoming Master of Magdalene College, in Cambridge, when he was recommended to Lord Braybrooke as a possible candidate, but the College Fellows opposed the appointment, preferring another candidate, A. South. Ramsey. Braybrooke chose to appoint neither, and instead A. B. Ramsay, who was Lower Master at Eton, got the job.
Marten was appointed to Ramsay"s vacated post at Eton. Further promotions followed, to Vice-Provost in 1929, and Provost in 1945.
In 1938, Marten began instructing Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) in constitutional history.
The library contains his collection of books, which he bequeathed to Eton on his death.