I put out a query to my Twitter friends and JosieHolford @JosieHolford replied at once and, thanks to her brilliant detective work, I was able to find out a little more about May. Josie has her own amazing website – www.josieholford.com
May was born in Woolwich, London, UK on 19th March 1894. She was registered as ‘May Herschel, last name Clarke’. Her parents were Charles Frederick Clarke, a surgeon, and his wife Minnie Emma Clarke, nee Cox, who were married in Woolwich in 1892. An extensive search has not revealed why May was given the name Herschel.
I have not been able to find out where May was educated but we know from the 1939 Census that she became a journalist. From 1913 – 1915, May’s articles about the suffragettes were published in the daily newspaper “The Herald”. “The Herald” was a national newspaper, published in London from 1912 – 1964.
As May was 20 years old when war broke out in 1914, it seems likely that she would have volunteered for some kind of war work. However, I could not find her name on the British Red Cross website for those who joined the WW1 Voluntary Aid Detachments.
May’s poem “The Debt” was published in “Votes for Women” on Friday, 22nd January 1915
May’s most famous WW1 poem is undoubtedly “The Mother”, which she wrote after reading Rupert Brooke's poem “The Soldier”. “The Mother” (see my post of 13th May 2019) was first published in the journal “T.P.s Weekly”, the editors of which were: November 1902 - June 1914: T. P. O'Connor; July 1914 - April 1916: Holbrook Jackson.
However, May wrote a great many other poems, for instance
“Nothing to Report”
One minute we was laughin', me an' Ted,
The next, he lays beside me grinnin' - dead.
‘There's nothin' to report,' the papers said.
May died in Woolwich in 1955.
May’s WW1 poetry collection “Behind the Firing Line, and Other Poems of the War” was published in 1917 by Erskine Macdonald, London.
Here is May’s poem in appreciation of Alma Taylor “England’s answer to American film-star Mary Pickford” was published in the magazine “Pictures and the Picturegoer”.
From “Alma”
Not yours the air of high romance,
The flashing eye, the burning glance,
The haughty look of cold distain,
The pass’nate mouth and raven tress –
But rather the shy comeliness
Of Springtime in an English lane.
In “British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to Sean Connery”, Edited by Bruce Babington (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2001)
Alma Louise Taylor (1895 – 1974) - British film-star
Alma Taylor was born in London on 3rd January 1895. She made her first screen appearance as a child actor in the 1907 film “His Daughter's Voice” and went on to appear in more than 150 film roles. Alma also acted in a number of larger-budget films such as “Shadow of Egypt”, which was shot on location in Egypt in 1924. Alma was one of the most important British filmstars of the 1910s and early 1920s. In 1915, she was voted the most popular British performer by readers of “Pictures and the Picturegoers”, beating Charlie Chaplin into second place.
After 1932, Alma acted very occasionally, with roles in “Lilacs in the Spring”, “Blue Murder at St Trinian's”, and “A Night to Remember” during the 1950s. Alma died in London on 23rd January 1974, at the age of 79.
Photograph of Alma taken for the Cecil Hepworth Film Company.
Sources:
Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978)
Catherine W. Reily “Scars upon my Heart” (Virago Press, London, 2008)
Find my Past
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https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_byXnAAAAMAAJ/page/n18
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6AJCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=may+herschel+clarke&source=bl&ots=ZL6ow9v--O&sig=ACfU3U2OhHYnIqN2wGv610J4omQKBHdmjA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR8rmHtpjiAhUdBWMBHemeChU4HhDoATAGegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=may%20herschel%20clarke&f=false
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