John Moat

Roger John Frothingham Moat[1] (11 September 1936 – 16 September 2014) was a British poet, and co-founder, with John Fairfax, of the Arvon Foundation in 1968.

Early life and background

He was born in India, the son of John Henry Frothingham Moat (1907–1942), known as "Jeff", an officer in the Green Howards killed in action in British Malaya; like his father, he was educated at Radley College and Exeter College, Oxford.[2][3] His mother was Norrie Fyans Fenwick of Dunedin, daughter of Herbert Fenwick, who married Moat in 1932.[4][5]

In England

Around 1939, the Moat family, comprising also Norrie and John Moat's sister (born 1932), moved to England. They lived on the edge of Dartmoor in a converted mill, between Buckfastleigh and Combe.[4][6] Norrie Moat married again, in 1949, to Lt.-Col. Tom Anderson Peddie DSO, a retired soldier of the Green Howards, as his second wife, and died in 1971 at Hambledon, Hampshire, England.[1][7][8][9] Peddie's first wife, from a marriage in 1927, was Beryl Boxer, sister of C. R. Boxer. They were divorced in the late 1930s, so she could marry his friend Miles Smeeton in 1938.[9][10]

Before entering Exeter College, Oxford in 1956 to read English, Moat studied in France under the caricaturist Edmond Xavier Kapp. Through Kapp he had an introduction to the literary agent David Higham. At Exeter College he was taught by Nevill Coghill and Jonathan Wordsworth.[2][11][12]

Moat's stepfather died in 1958.[13] At age 24, he bought the disused Crenham Mill on the coast near Hartland, Devon. It was his long-term home.[2][14][15] In 1979 he was instrumental in Satish Kumar and his family moving to the area.[16][17]

Writer

Moat left Oxford in 1960.[15] He had decided to write as a career, but lacked a starting point. He took on an "apprenticeship" with the South African poet John Howland Beaumont. He worked as a teacher and librarian.[18] He replaced around 1960 the older Devonian John Fairfax, a pub acquaintance and future collaborator, as a teacher at Brockhurst and Marlston House School.[19]

Death

Moat died on 16 September 2014 and was survived by his wife Antoinette and their son and daughter.[20]

Bibliography

Poetry

  • Thunder of Grass (1969)
  • 6d per annum
  • Skeleton Key
  • Fiesta & Fox Reviews His Prophecy (1980)
  • Welcombe Overtures Stages of Solar Eclipse & The Ballad of The Leat (1987)
  • Firewater & The Miraculous Mandarin
  • Practice (1994)

Novels

  • Heorot
  • Bartonwood
  • Mai's Wedding
  • The Missing Moon

References

  1. ^ a b "No. 45522". The London Gazette. 16 November 1971. p. 12556.
  2. ^ a b c Thorpe, Adam (12 October 2014). "John Moat obituary". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "Lost Collection McCance". lennonwylie.co.uk.
  4. ^ a b Burke, Bernard (1939). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry. Burke's Peerage, Ltd. p. 1609.
  5. ^ "The marriage of Norrie Fyans, elder daughter of Mr and Mrs H. S. Fenwick, of "Brinkburn"". Otago Witness via paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 9 February 1932. p. 37.
  6. ^ Lane, John (1998). In Praise of Devon: A Guide to Its People, Places and Character. Dundurn. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-870098-75-5.
  7. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  9. ^ a b Who's who. A. & C. Black. 1943. p. 2433.
  10. ^ Bosher, J. F. (April 2010). Imperial Vancouver Island, Who was Who 1850-1950. Xlibris Corporation. p. 681. ISBN 978-1-4500-5963-3.
  11. ^ "Exeter College Register 2014" (PDF). exeter.ox.ac.uk. Exeter College, Oxford. 2014. p. 83.
  12. ^ Moat, John. "The Gist of Arvon" (PDF). exeter.ac.uk. University of Exeter. pp. 3–4.
  13. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  14. ^ Clarke, Lindsay (28 September 2014). "John Moat: Poet and author whose imaginative vision fuelled the Arvon". The Independent.
  15. ^ a b Publications, Europa (2 August 2004). International Who's Who in Poetry 2005. Routledge. p. 1084. ISBN 978-1-135-35519-7.
  16. ^ Clarke, Lindsay (17 August 2012). Gist. eBook Partnership. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-909270-30-5.
  17. ^ "John Moat 1936 - 2014". www.resurgence.org.
  18. ^ Jaillant, Lise (22 September 2022). Literary Rebels: A History of Creative Writers in Anglo-American Universities. Oxford University Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-19-266758-8.
  19. ^ Thorpe, Adam (21 January 2009). "John Fairfax". The Guardian.
  20. ^ "John Moat - obituary". Daily Telegraph. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2014.


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