Postgate family

John Percival Postgate (1853–1926), classicist

The Postgate family is an English family that has been notable in a variety of different fields. It originated in the North York Moors and records go back to land held by Postgates in 1200. Fields and a farm bearing the name still exist. The name is rare outside Yorkshire.

The family is probably related collaterally to the Catholic recusant priest and martyr Blessed Nicholas Postgate (1596/97 – 7 August 1679) who was hanged, disembowelled and quartered at York in the aftermath of the Popish Plot, as well as to Michael Postgate who founded the Postgate School at Great Ayton where Captain Cook was educated.^[1] An American branch was founded by emigrant William Postgate (1819-1861) whose descendants include John W Postgate (playwright) and Margaret J Postgate (sculptor).

This article is otherwise concerned with an English sibling of William, John Postgate (food safety campaigner) (1820–1881), and his descendants. John Postgate was an English surgeon who became Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology at Queen's College, Birmingham (which later became Birmingham University) and was a leading campaigner against food adulteration.^[2]

His son John Percival Postgate (1853–1926) was professor of comparative philology at University College, London, then of Latin at the University of Liverpool from 1909 to 1920. He edited the Classical Review and the Classical Quarterly, and published both school textbooks and editions of Latin poetry. He married Edith Allen,^[3] and they had six children.

John Percival Postgate's daughter Dame Margaret Cole (1893–1980) was married in 1918 to socialist economist and writer G.D.H. Cole. They wrote over 30 detective novels together between 1925 and 1948. She went into London politics and received a DBE. Her brother Raymond Postgate (1896 –1971) was notable as a socialist, journalist and editor, social historian, mystery novelist and gourmet. He founded The Good Food Guide in 1951, which was ahead of its time in being largely based on volunteer reports on restaurants. He married Daisy Lansbury (1892–1971), daughter of, and secretary to, the politician George Lansbury (1859–1940) who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935, and whose biography was among Raymond's books.

In the next generation, Raymond's children include the microbiologist John Postgate FRS (born 24 June 1922 - 22 October 2014),^[4] Professor of Microbiology at the University of Sussex, who was also a writer on, and sometime performer of, jazz.^[5][6] His brother, Richard Oliver Postgate (1925–2008), was an animator, puppeteer and writer, who created television series such as Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers from the 1950s to the 1980s.^[7] Their cousin, actress Dame Angela Lansbury (born 1925), has had a film and stage career spanning over 70 years.

Another son of John Percival Postgate was Ormond Oliver Postgate (1905-1989). His son Nicholas Postgate,^[8] FBA (born 5 November 1945) is a British academic and Assyriologist. He is Professor of Assyriology at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.^[9]

Biographies and autobiographies

The speaking voice of Oliver Postgate, from the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, 15 July 2007

• John Postgate (2001) Lethal Lozenges and Tainted Tea: A Biography of John Postgate (1820-1881). ISBN 978-1-85858-178-1
• Cole, Margaret (1949) Growing up into Revolution
• Cole, Margaret (1971) The Life of G. D. H. Cole
• Mitchison, N., (1982) Margaret Cole, 1893-1980 ISBN 0-7163-0482-1
• Vernon, B. D. (1986) Margaret Cole, 1893-1980: A Political Biography ISBN 0-7099-2611-1
• John & Mary Postgate, A Stomach For Dissent: The Life Of Raymond Postgate, (Keele University Press, 1994).
• Seeing Things: An Autobiography, Oliver Postgate; illustrated by Peter Firmin, 2000 - ISBN 0-330-39000-7; republished in 2009 - ISBN 978-1-84767-840-9
• John Postgate (2013), Microbes, Music and Me, ISBN 9781861511003

References

1. Postgate (2001) pp. 75-76, where more sources concerning Nicholas and Michael may be found.
2.  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Postgate, John". Dictionary of National Biography. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35582
3. "Postgate, John Percival (PSTT872JP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
4. POSTGATE, Prof. John Raymond. Who's Who. 2014 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
5. Royal Society list of Fellows; Postgate was elected in 1977.
6. John Postgate (microbiologist) profile, Cambridge University Press; accessed 23 April 2016.
7. Hayward, Anthony (2012). "Postgate, Richard Oliver (1925–2008)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2012-05-28. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/100678
8. POSTGATE, Prof. (John) Nicholas. Who's Who. 2014 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
9. "(John) Nicholas POSTGATE". People of Today. Debrett's. Retrieved 14 February 2014.