With grateful thanks to John Butt, Great Great Nephew
of Geraldine and her sister Beatrice for finding us photographs of the poets.
Geraldine was educated with her sister Beatrice at a boarding school in Stoke Newington, Hackney, London. The girls went on to write books of fiction and verse and became published authors in the 1870s, writing several books jointly. Their fiction was written mainly for children and young people.
On 17th December 1878, Geraldine married John Campbell Robertson-Glasgow (1844 – 1913), a British Army officer in the Suffolk Regiment, in St. Jude's Church, Kensington, London, UK. The couple had the following children: Wilhelmina May Robertson-Glasgow b. 28 Oct 1879, Noel Robertson-Glasgow b. 25 Dec 1881, d. 19 Jan 1956, Lt.-Cdr. Martin Robertson-Glasgow b. 1 Mar 1883, d. 27 Jul 1916, Kenneth Robertson-Glasgow b. 11 Dec 1885, d. 29 Dec 1912, Esther Robertson-Glasgow b. 26 Nov 1887, d. 1966, Alister Frederick Robertson-Glasgow b. 2 Sep 1890, d. 10 Oct 1909 and Catherine Campbell Robertson-Glasgow b. 31 Aug 1896..
After her marriage, Geraldine published further books under the name Robertson-Glasgow. She wrote for several magazines including “The Monthly Packet” magazine that was published between 1851 and 1899 and used the pen-name G. R. Glasgow.
Geraldine died on 23rd September 1920 – by then she was a widow living in Kensington - in Knaresborough Place, Earls Court, London and is remembered in Westbury, Cemetery, Wiltshire.
Geraldine’s WW1 poetry collection was entitled “Poems of the Great War”, Printed in Frome: St Aldhelm’s Home for Boys, 1919 and her poems were included in six WW1 anthologies.
“ATTILA”
Swift the flaming wings of death
Beat against the laboring breath,
Blazing hearth and anguished cry
Smite against the tranquil sky,
As the legions thunder by.
For the ruthless, tragic beat
Of those fierce, relentless feet,
Broken faith, and tarnished sword,
Judgment, and not mercy, Lord !
While upon the fields of red,
Sleep the unremembered dead,
While the homeless, in the glare
Of the ruins burnt and bare,
Face a hell of black despair,
For those silent heaps that lie
Witness to a silent sky,
Shattered homes, dishonored sword,
Judgment, and not mercy, Lord !
But when stands the naked soul,
Shamed and broken, at the goal,
When the tragic eyes can see,
Through that cloud of infamy,
Nothing but itself — and Thee,
Love invincible shall plead,
Hopeless anguish, deepest need.
Pity sheathe the flaming sword,
Mercy, and not judgment, Lord.
G. R. Glasgow. Chambers's Journal.
From “War Verse” Edited by Frank Foxcroft (Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., New York, 1918), p. 272
St Aldhelm's Home for Boys, at Frome, was opened by the Waifs and Strays Society in around 1894 as a replacement for the Sunnyside Home in Frome. The new home was formally dedicated on October 4th, 1898, by the Bishop of Bath. St Aldhelm's could accommodate up to 45 boys aged from 8 to 14 years of age.
Aldhelm was born in Wessex in 639. When he was a young boy, he was sent to Canterbury to be educated under Adrian, Abbot of St Augustine’s, and soon impressed his teachers with his skill in the study of Latin and Greek literature.
Aldhelm returned to Wessex some years later and joined the community of monks in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He embraced the monastic life and, in 680, became the monks’ teacher. In 705, the Bishopric of Wessex was split into two dioceses and Aldhelm was made Bishop of Sherborne. In his time as bishop, he rebuilt the church at Sherborne and helped to establish a nunnery at Wareham. He also built churches at Langton Matravers and the Royal Palace at Corfe.
On 25th May 709, just four years after his consecration, Aldhelm died at Doulting in Somerset. His funeral procession travelled 50 miles from Doulting to Malmesbury and stone crosses were planted at 7-mile intervals, to mark each place where his body rested for the night. Today we celebrate 25th May, the date of Aldhelm’s death, as a feast day to remember the first Bishop of Sherborne – a true evangelist and an inspiring Saint.
Sources: Find my Past, Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 276
https://archive.org/stream/poemsfrompunch00hend/poemsfrompunch00hend_djvu.txt
http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/FromeStAldhelmWS/#:~:text=St%20Aldhelm's%20Home%20for%20Boys%2C%20at%20Frome%2C%20was%20opened%20by,aged%20from%208%20to%2014.
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC/1871/0006503576#learn-more-content
http://www.saintaldhelms.co.uk/?page_id=48https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol8/pp217-223
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=BL%2F0000346%2F18751213%2F016%2F0004&transcriptid=BL_0000346_18751213_016_1588
http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2777
Thank you to John Butt for contacting me and sending me these beautiful photographs of Geraldine.
