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W. S. Lach-Szyrma
| Full Name: |
Wladislaw
Somerville
Lach-Szyrma |
| Born: |
December 25, 1841
Devonport, Devon, England, UK |
| Died: |
June 25, 1915
Barkinside, Essex, England, UK |
| Occupation: |
UK Anglican Clergyman, Author, Historian |
| Nationality: |
British |
| Links: |
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Biography
The Reverend Wladislaw Somerville Lach-Szyrma, M.A., F.R.H.S. was an English curate, historian and science fiction writer who is credited as the first writer to use the word Martian as a noun.
Lach-Szyrma was born on 25 December 1841 in Devonport, formerly a town and now a district of the city of Plymouth in Devon. His father was Krystyn Lach Szyrma, a Polish professor of philosophy who abandoned his teaching position at the University of Warsaw and expatriated c. 1830, to escape persecution amidst the November Uprising. Krystyn started a new life in England, and married into the Somerville family of Plymouth, Sarah Frances Somerville (1802 to 1869). He had one sibling, a brother Stanislaw Stuart Lach-Szyrma (18 February 1844 to 19 June 1844). Lach-Szyrma married Rosina Atkinson (1846 to 1929) and they had thirteen children. He died in Barkingside, Essex on 25 Jun 1915.
After studying the classics in a Literae Humaniores course at Brasenose College, Oxford, Wladislaw accepted a curacy in Pensilva; so began a life of service to the Church of England in Cornwall. In 1869 he took the curacy at St Paul's in Truro, followed in 1871 by another in Carnmenellis. He became ill during a visit to Paris; after a short recovery, he returned to England to find that several newspapers published his obituary. From 1873 until 1890 he served as vicar of St. Peter's Church in the port town of Newlyn.
W S Lach-Szyrma was keenly interested in the history of Cornwall; he wrote prolifically about the churches and antiquities there--especially those of the district around Penzance. He was also a pioneering writer of science fiction; he is credited as the first writer to use the word Martian as a noun. This precedent occurs in his 1883 novel, Aleriel, or A Voyage to Other Worlds.
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