| Alt Ref No | DD36 |
| Acc No | 3919 |
| 0043 |
| Title | Randal Mundy Papers |
| Description | This collection includes personal items (notebooks, mourning cards) 1862-1906; Letters 1880-1914; notes certificates and bills 1862-1919; papers relating to education and training 1883-1905; financial papers 1898-1914; newscuttings and ephemera c1863-1930; Albion School photographs 1886-1900; various photographs c1870s-1910. |
| Date | 1895-1918 |
| Extent | 0.8 linear metres |
| AdminHistory | Randal Mundy was born on 22 April 1862 in Stalybridge. He was educated at Hob Hill and also privately, and was apprenticed in a machine shop at the age of 13. After a few weeks there his right hand was badly crushed in a slide lathe and deprived him of the use of two of his fingers. He was sent to Albion School in Ashton and gained a scholarship and a £5 prize for drawing before becoming a pupil teacher and assistant master. In 1883 he came 12th out of 2,000 candidates in the Government Scholarship Examination. He attended Borough Road College, a teacher training institute in Southwark, London, from 1884. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1892 and a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in 1898 from London University. In 1900, he married Ethel Reid Smith, who died in 1906 aged 28. He taught evening and technical classes, did biological work in Brittany and worked at Stalybridge Mechanics Institute. He was a member of the Liverpool Biological Association and worked at Port Erin Laboratory and on a trawler, and was also a member of the Manchester Microscopical Society. He was the author of "A Primer for Biology", various articles for the press and Courses of Study for Correspondence Colleges. He studied French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian and translated various works from English into these languages. The Colonial Office appointed him as headmaster of a new school in the Orange River Colony shortly after the Boer War ended. He retired from school work in 1912 and embarked on an eighteen-month round the world trip. In 1920 he went to New Zealand to study its forestry and geology. He maintained an interest in dialect throughout his life and was a member of the Lancashire Authors' Association and the Lyric Club. He wrote a number of dialect poems including "Th' Origin o' Life", "Spring-Time", "A Lenkisher Lass", "A Potato Pie", "Stalybridge Wakes" and "Mi Bed".
Randall Mundy died on 6 May 1937 and was buried at Dukinfield Old Chapel on 10 May by C. Prestwich Scott. |
| Related Material | See also ephemera for Mundy family tree. A report of his funeral appears in the Ashton Reporter on 14 May 1937, and the details of his will are published on 2 July 1937. The Reporter also carries an article about him including a poem which is thought to be unpublished on page 7 on 8 June 1935.
The following items are held amongst the book stock at Tameside Local Studies and Archives:
Randal Mundy's dialect poetry has been published in "A Lancashire Garland of Dialect Prose and Verse" selected and edited by G. Halstead Whittaker, published 1936 by Geo. Whittaker and Sons, Stalybridge. Shelf mark L828.
Copies of Randal Mundy's "Primer of Biology and Nature Study", published by Ralph Holland. First edition 1904, Second edition 1905, Fourth edition 1907, at shelf mark L829 MUN.
Books from Randal Mundy's personal library were kindly donated by Mrs M. Mellor. They are catalogued at shelf mark L097 MUN. |
| CustodialHistory | Item DD36/1 (accession 0043) was deposited at Ashton Library by an unknown depositor. Accession 3919 was transferred to Tameside Local Studies and Archives from Portland Basin in February 2011. These items were donated by Norman Shaw via Stalybridge Historical Society (pre 1978). All Randal Mundy related items were found in the office of Norman Potts, later succeeded by Norman Shaw. |
| Type | Archive |
| Ref No | GB131.0043 |
