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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Sydney Gwenffrwd Mostyn

Author: Sydney Gwenffrwd Mostyn (1866–1926)

Biography: Sydney Gwenffrwd Mostyn was born in 1866 in Braintree, Essex, the son of the Welsh Baptist minister John Mostyn and his wife Sarah. He attended Ipswich Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford (B. A. 1888, M. A. 1892) where he excelled in mathematics. While working as a teacher, he turned his hand to writing, beginning with a collection of stories about a curate. (He affected the honorific "Rev." but there is no evidence he took holy orders.) By 1900, he turned his attentions to public health, earning a degree at Cambridge and working variously in Yorkshire and Northumbria. In 1911, he was named medical officer of health for Darlington. Mostyn married Jennie Tait in 1907. While on holiday in Scotland, he died in a motor accident on 22 June 1926 near Fort William. Note: not to be confused with novelist William Clark Russell who used a pseudonym similar to his name.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1891, 1911); Hartlepool Northern Daily News (23 June 1926); Lancet (3 July 1926); Probate

Fiction Titles:

  1. Curatica: or, Leaves from a Curate's Note-Book.  1 vol.  London: Leadenhall Press, 1891.
  2. Stay-at-Home Husbands and How to Manage Them.  1 vol.  London: Gay and Bird, 1894.
  3. Miss Spinney.  1 vol.  London: Leadenhall Press, 1900.