Ruth Collie, née Ruth Jacobs, (1888 - 1936) - British-born poet who started her writing career in Winnipeg, Manitoba – whose pen names were Wilhelmina Stitch and Sheila Rand

With thanks to Stanley Kaye (the Poppy Man) for finding this poet for us.  

Ruth Jacobs was born in November 1888 in Cambridge, UK. She was the eldest of three children born to Isiah Wolf Jacobs, a bookseller and accountant, and his wife, Josephine Jacobs, nee Hast. Her maternal grandfather was Marcus Hast, a Hebrew composer who spent 40 years as Rabbi at the Great Synagogue of London.

In 1908, Ruth's future husband, Elisha Arakie Cohen, a lawyer who worked for the firm Daly, Crichton and McClure in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, travelled to England where he met  Ruth. They were married and returned to Winnipeg. In 1910 their son - Ralph - was born.

In 1913, Ruth began writing book reviews for the “Winnipeg Telegram” using the pen name Sheila Rand. In 1917 she was hired as an editor and regularly published poems and short stories. By January 1919, the “Telegram” was in financial trouble and she was recruited by the “Winnipeg Tribune”, where she started to write a column called "What to Read... and What Not." The column included book reviews and also poems she wrote. 

Following the death of her husband in March 1919, Ruth began working at Eaton's, writing advertising copy for their catalogues. She continued to write for the “Tribune” and became literary editor of “Western Home Monthly”. She was also elected vice-president of the Canadian Authors' Association, which led to regular speaking engagements. In 1922, Ruth signed a deal to publish her poetry in several North American newspapers and began to write under a new pen name, Wilhelmina Stitch.

In 1923 Ruth moved back to England to further her son's education. He became a  professor of economics. In 1924, she married Frank Collie, a physician from Scotland. Ruth resumed her writing career and submitted poetry to the “London Daily Graphic”. Her daily poetry earned her the nickname, "the poem a day lady." Her poetry made her name well known and she was regularly called on to speak for community groups. In 1930, Ruth went on a two-month speaking tour of North America where she spoke every day for 50 days.

Ruth died in London in 1936 after a brief illness at the age of 48. 

Memorial plaque dedicated to Ruth Collie under her pen name Wilhelmina Stitch at Golders Green Crematorium. Photograph by Stanley Kaye. 

"TO ONE WHO DIED IN ACTION"

FOR thirteen years, 

Each first of June, 

We marked our heights upon the schoolroom door. 

With girlish jeers, 

Each first of June, 

I scoffed, O cousin, you must grow still more 

If you would be as tall as I 

Next first of June ! 

My solemn, pale-faced cousin, Fie ! 

To let me win the race. 

 

Ah me! To-day, 

This first of June, 

They wrote that you in Flanders found a grave. 

So now I say, 

This first of June,   

‘O pale-faced cousin, sleeping with the brave, 

Would I could grow as tall as you 

Next first of June, 

And stride, as British heroes do, 

With head above the clouds!’ 

From: “Canadian Poems of the Great War.” Edited by John W. Garvin, (McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 1918) – page 184. 

As this WW1 Anthology is available to read as a free download on Archive, you can also read other poems by Ruth published in that volume on pages 183 – 186. 

https://archive.org/details/canadianpoems00garvuoft/page/184/mode/2up

Other sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD and Wikipedia. 

http://www.echenberg.org/war-poetry.com_oldsite/_data/authorpaginated/details/63960.html

Portrait of Ruth taken  by Howard Coster National Portrait Gallery NPG x93858

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw54152/Wilhelmina-Stitch-Ruth-Collie

Howard Sydney Musgrave Coster (27 April 1885 – 17 November 1959) was a British photographer. After serving in the RAF during WW1, he opened a studio in London in 1926.