Hester Gatty (1906 - 1973) – British poet and artist who married WW1 soldier poet Siegfried Sassoon

Hester Gatty

Hester Gatty was born In Kensington, London, UK on 16th March 1906. Her parents were Sir Stephen Herbert Gatty and his second wife, Kathleen, nee Morrison. 

Sir Stephen Herbert Gatty (1849-1922) was son of the children's author, Margaret Scott Gatty (herself the daughter of Nelson's confidential secretary and chaplain, Dr Scott) and brother of the writer Juliana Horatia Ewing and herald Alfred Scott Gatty.  Sir Stephen was the Chief Justice of Gibraltar from 16th  January 1895 to 1905 and was formerly a judge of the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements. On 19th December 1904, he was named a Knight Bachelor.

Hester’s siblings were Oliver Gatty (1907-1940) and Richard Gatty (1909-1975).

“Ventures in Verse by Members of the Scratch Society” was a selection of 31 poems published in December 1924 by Arthur H. Stockwell.   The poems included were written mainly by women authors, though there are three by a Michael Dugdale. Hester Gatty (later Siegfried Sassoon’s wife), was a member of the Society and she has three poems in this book, “From the Hebrides,” “Tired” and “Moon-Beam.” 

The Scratch Society was a group of poets and story writers who formed this society, et regularly in each other's homes and occasionally got their work into print.  Members of the Scratch Society included Georgina Blakiston, Jan Struther and Nancy Cunard.  Evelyn Waugh, Cyril Connolly and John Betjman also attended meetings.  American singer Paul Robeson visited once.

Source:  A post written by David Gray of Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship and posted on the Fellowship's Facebook page.

Here is one of the poems wriitten by Hester and included in the collection: 

I would love to know if Hester wrote any poetry when she was a schoolgirl during the First World War. As some of you may know, I have been collecting poetry written by schoolchildren during 1914 - 1919 and in March 2018 held an exhibition about some of them.  Here is a link to a news report about the opening of the exhibition of Poetry written by Schoolchildren during WW1 at the Wilfred Owen Story, Wirral on 17th March 2018:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b40hAbqb8

Exhibition of Poetry written by
Schoolchildren, The Wilfred Owen Story, Wirral,
March 2018