Editing John Martyn (section)

== Early life and education ==
Martyn was born in Beechcroft Avenue, [[New Malden]], [[Surrey]], to Belgian Jewish mother Beatrice "Betty" Ethel (''née'' Jewitt) and [[Greenock]]-born Scottish father Thomas Paterson "Tommy" McGeachy.<ref>{{cite web|title=Feeling Gravity's Pull – The Official John Martyn Website|url=https://www.johnmartyn.com/magazines-and-newspapers/feeling-gravitys-pull/|website=Johnmartyn.com|date=May 1998|quotation=Since his birth in 1949 (sic), to an English mother and Scottish father, he's forever been shuttling the length ... In fact she wasn't she was Jewish Belgian. ... Exit Ms Frederick stage left, rapidly, but the song remains: Sandy Grey turns up the following ...}}</ref><ref name="munro">John Neil Munro, ''Some People Are Crazy&nbsp;— the John Martyn Story''; {{ISBN|978-1-84697-058-0}}, Polygon, 2007 p.125</ref><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/17373827.musical-genius-or-a-wasted-talent-in-search-of-the-real-john-martyn/|title=Musical genius or a wasted talent? In search of the real John Martyn|website=HeraldScotland|date=26 January 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-100767|title=Martyn, John [real name Ian David McGeachy] (1948–2009), musician and songwriter|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/100767|isbn=978-0-19-861411-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.scribd.com/book/464995057/Small-Hours-The-Long-Night-of-John-Martyn|title=Read Small Hours Online by Graeme Thomson &#124; Books|via=www.scribd.com|quote=His parents were Thomas Paterson McGeachy and Beatrice Ethel Jewitt... Beatrice was born on December 10, 1924 to Maud and Harold Jewitt, into a Jewish family that had moved, after her arrival, from Belgium to England.* Her father was a broker for a shipping company, her mother a housewife. They lived at 34 Compton Avenue, in the new and affluent garden suburb of Gidea Park in Romford, Essex.}}</ref> His parents, both [[opera singers]], divorced when he was five and he spent his childhood alternating between Scotland and England. Most of this time was spent in the care of his father and grandmother, Janet, in [[Shawlands]], Glasgow, part of his holidays each year spent on his mother's houseboat.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.johnmartyn.info/sleevenotes/serendipity-brendan-quayle|title=Serendipity – Brendan Quayle &#124; Big Muff|website=Johnmartyn.info|access-date=13 July 2020}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oubUlFP3zuQ&t=453s| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/oubUlFP3zuQ| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=Graeme Thomson on John Martyn's "lifelong grudges and huge, messy explosion of records"| date=9 July 2020|publisher=[[YouTube]]|access-date=13 July 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/john-martyn-heaven-can-wait-562230.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220613/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/john-martyn-heaven-can-wait-562230.html |archive-date=13 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=John Martyn: Heaven can wait|date=5 May 2004|website=The Independent}}</ref> He adapted his accent depending on context or company, changing between broad or refined [[Glaswegian dialect|Glaswegian]] and southern English accents, and continued to do so throughout his life.<ref name="auto" /><ref name="auto2" /><ref name="auto1" /> He attended [[Shawlands Academy]] in Glasgow.<ref name="timesobit" /> At school, he was a keen rugby player. On leaving school he attended [[Glasgow School of Art]], but left to pursue his musical aspirations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.johnmartyn.info/node/321|title=Glasgow Walker &#124; Big Muff|website=Johnmartyn.info}}</ref>