Today's Poet: Fernanda de Castro - Portugal (1900 - 1994)

Dating back to the days of John O'Gaunt of Lancaster, whose daughter married the King of Portugal, Portugal is Britain's oldest ally.  The alliance introduced tea and marmalade to our islands and I imagine Port as well.

Not many people seem to know that Portugal sent troops, equipment and medics to help us during WW1.

Today's poet - Fernanda de Castro is particularly interesting because of her long life - she will have witnessed a great many changes!   Fernanda was born in Lisbon and published her first volume of poems in 1919.

Pictured left are examples of Portuguese uniforms in the First World War and below are Portuguese Machine Gunners in Africa during WW1.