Sir Henry Newbolt | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1862-06-06)6 June 1862 Bilston,Staffordshire, England |
| Died | 19 April 1938(1938-04-19) (aged 75) Kensington,London, England |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | English |
| Notable works | "Vitaï Lampada" "Drake's Drum" |
| Relatives | Jill Furse (granddaughter) |
Sir Henry John Newbolt,CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian.[1] He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vitaï Lampada" and "Drake's Drum".
Henry John Newbolt was born inBilston,Wolverhampton (then inStaffordshire, but now in the West Midlands), son of the vicar of St Mary's Church, the Rev. Henry Francis Newbolt (1824–1866), and his second wife, Emily née Stubbs (1838–1921), the older brother of SirFrancis Newbolt.[2][3] After his father's death, the family moved toWalsall, where Henry was educated.
Newbolt attendedQueen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, andCaistor Grammar School,[4] from which he gained a scholarship toClifton College,[5] where he was head of the school (1881) and edited the school magazine. His contemporaries there includedJohn McTaggart,Arthur Quiller-Couch,Roger Fry,William Birdwood,Francis Younghusband andDouglas Haig. Graduating fromCorpus Christi College, Oxford, Newbolt was called to the bar atLincoln's Inn in 1887 and practised until 1899.[6]
Newbolt married Margaret Edwina née Duckworth (1867–1960) of the prominent publishing familyDuckworth Books; they had two children:
Newbolt resided at 14Victoria Road inKensington from 1889 to 1898.[7] He was the grandfather of actressJill Furse.[8]
His first book was a novel,Taken from the Enemy (1892), and in 1895 he published a tragedy,Mordred;but it was the publication of his ballads,Admirals All (1897), that created his literary reputation. By far the best-known of these is "Vitaï Lampada". They were followed by other volumes of stirring verse, includingThe Island Race (1898),The Sailing of the Long-ships (1902),Songs of the Sea (1904)[6] andSongs of the Fleet (1910).
The Twymans: A Tale of Youth (1911) is a short work of fiction wherein Newbolt fleshes out the features of his own extraordinary education at Clifton. One of the themes of the novel, as of Newbolt's preparation for college and for life, is indicated in this remark that a teacher makes to a "practical" parent inquiring about the school: "For information, you purchase a text-book; for education, you live in a society."
In 1914, Newbolt publishedAladore, a fantasy novel about a bored but dutiful knight who abruptly abandons his estate and wealth to discover his heart's desire and woo a half-fae enchantress. It is a tale filled with allegories about the nature of youth, service, individuality and tradition. It was reissued in a new edition byNewcastle Publishing Company in 1975.
Probably the best known of all Newbolt's poems, which was written in 1892 and for which he is now chiefly remembered, is "Vitaï Lampada". The title is taken from a quotation byLucretius and means "the torch of life". It describes how a schoolboy, a future soldier, learns selfless commitment to duty in cricket matches in theClose at Clifton College:
The engagement mentioned in verse two is theBattle of Abu Klea inSudan in January 1885 during the unsuccessful expedition to rescueGeneral Gordon.Frederick Burnaby is the colonel referred to in the line "TheGatling's jammed and the Colonel's dead...", although it was aGardner machine gun which jammed, and while Mahdist warriors did break into the British square, it did not collapse disastrously as the poem suggests.[9]
According to legendthe drum owned bySir Francis Drake and carried with him on his voyages will beat in times of national crisis and the spirit of Drake will return to aid his country. Sir Henry reinforced the myth with his 1897 poem "Drake's Drum", "Drake he's in his hammock an' a thousand mile away...":
The poem has been widely anthologised and has been set to both classical and folk tunes. "Drake's Drum" is the first of five poetic settings by the composerCharles Villiers Stanford. Stanford wrote two song cycles based on poems by Newbolt:Songs of the Sea andSongs of the Fleet.
Newbolt was the editor of theMonthly Review from October 1900 to September 1904.[11] He was also a member of theAthenaeum and theCoefficients dining club.
At the start of the First World War, Newbolt – along with over 20 other leading British writers – was brought into theWar Propaganda Bureau, which had been formed to promote Britain's interests during the war and maintain public opinion in favour of the war.
He subsequently became Controller of Wireless and Cables at the Foreign Office. His poems about the war include "The War Films", printed on the leader page ofThe Times on 14 October 1916, which seeks to temper the shock effect on cinema audiences of footage of theBattle of the Somme.[12]
Newbolt was knighted in 1915 and was appointedMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1922.[13]
In the late 1920s he was the editor of the Nelson's Classics series of books published by Faber and Gwyer and later byFaber & Faber.[14]
In 1921 he had been the author of a government Report entitled "The Teaching of English in England" which established the foundations for modern English Studies and professionalised the forms of teaching of English Literature. It established a canon, argued that English must become the linguistic and literary standard throughout the British Empire, and even proposed salary rates for lecturers. For many years it was a standard work for English teachers in teacher training Colleges.[15][16][17]
Newbolt died at home inCampden Hill,Kensington, London, on 19 April 1938, aged 75.[18] His residency there is commemorated by ablue plaque. He is buried in the churchyard ofSt Mary's church on an island inthe lake on theOrchardleigh Estate of the Duckworth family in Somerset.
In his home town of Bilston, apublic house was named after him, and ablue plaque is displayed on Barclay's bank near the street where he was born.
Early 20th century British composerHope Squire wrote several songs based on Newbolt’s poems.[19]
In June 2013 a campaign was launched byThe Black Country Bugle to erect a statue in Newbolt's memory.
Recordings were made of Newbolt reading some of his own poems. They were on four 78rpm sides in theColumbia Records "International Educational Society" Lecture series, Lecture 92 (D40181/2).[20]
During an April 2018 episode ofSteve Jones's radio showJonesy's Jukebox,John Cooper Clarke revealed Newbolt as one of his early inspirations, reciting from memory a portion of Vitaï Lampada.[citation needed]
Welsh composerDavid John Thomas (1881-1928), also known by hisbardic name as Afan Thomas, composed a cantata based on Newbolt'sHe Fell Among Thieves. The poem is about the stoic death of the explorerGeorge Hayward (c. 1839 – 18 July 1870), captured and killed in Kashmiri territory.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Newbolt, Henry John".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 463.Henry Newbolt, the patriotic poet of Drake's Drum and similar verse, found his house, at 14 Victoria Road from 1889 to 1898 small 'but not dark or cramped.'
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