Jessie Pope

Jessie Pope (1868 - 1941) is, of course, on my ever-growing list of Female Poets of the First World War.

Initially I supposed that Jessie was very famous and therefore did not need me to add my 'twopennyworth'.   However, I recently contacted the North London Collegiate School about another poet and discovered so much more about Jessie Pope, a former pupil of the NLCS, than I knew before - so I felt I ought to speak up.

I have spent the weekend researching Jessie by reading all of the fascinating articles so kindly sent to me by the Librarian at the North London Collegiate School - for which I am extremely grateful.

I came to the conclusion that in today's rather hyper-critical climate, Jessie has been very much misunderstood.   Most people will be aware that Jessie is the 'my friend' referred to by Wilfred Owen in his now famous poem "Dulce et Decorum est" but how many people know that Wilfred did in fact cross out her name and any mention of "a certain Poetess" from later drafts he made of the poem?

Jessie was born in Leicester, UK on 18th March 1868. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Jessie would have been 46 years old.  She was already a famous writer and an established and published poet, loved for her humorous verse, with fans all over the world.   She was also a journalist contributing regularly to "The Daily Mail" and "Punch", both of which Wilfred Owen read regularly according to his published letters.   Wilfred, on the other hand, was aged 20 and working in France as a tutor.  At that time none of Wilfred's poems had been published.   

The most famous male soldier war poet during the First World War was arguably Rupert Brooke, although at the time, it seems that Robert Nichols felt he should have that title (see Cecil Roberts, pp 214 - 216).   Jessie carried on doing what she had always done - writing verse that has been described as 'jingoistic'  but which was aimed at keeping up the morale of a country that feared for its future.   The last months of 1914 were definitely not the time for criticism or defeatist talk, with the terrible loss of life, large numbers of wounded and the defeats and retreats the Army in France had suffered, followed by the bombardment of the east-coast towns Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby just before Christmas.   Jessie's particular brand of patriotic, rather light-hearted verse was therefore very popular, with one soldier writing to the "Daily Mail" to ask for a copy of one of her poems to be sent to his wife to cheer her up.

Jessie volunteered to work at the home for soldiers blinded in the conflict - St. Dunstan's in London - which was opened in 1915.   She wrote about the incredibly good humour of the soldiers learning to live normal lives in spite of their disability.   She continued writing at that time too and published several volumes of patriotic verse during the war years.

This has been an extremely useful lesson - never judge anything without doing your very best to find out all the facts.

With many thanks to the staff of the Library of the North London Collegiate School, one of the first schools for girls, which was set up in 1850 by Frances Mary Buss and used as a model for the education of girls in the rest of Britain.

For further details, please see their website - www.nlcs.org.uk

"The Years of Promise" by Cecil Roberts (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1968)  Roberts met Nichols in the Poetry Bookshop in London.

2014 Performances of "Vilomah" - "Bullets and Daffodils" Part II - the Wilfred Owen Story

I promise to get back to Female Poets shortly, but just had to tell you about the dates of performances for 2014 of The Wilfred Owen Story musical drama:

For the Liverpool performance at The Lantern Theatre, Blundell Street on 6th and 7th March 2014, actor and musician Davy Edge, who starred in the original cast of Blood Brothers, is set to make his return to the Liverpool stage.

Davy, who went on to feature in Brick Up The Mersey Tunnel, will narrate the World War I musical drama Vilomah at The Lantern Theatre. The production, written by Wirral songwriter Dean Johnson, is the sequel to the Wilfred Owen musical Bullets And Daffodils, which played to packed houses in London's West End in 2012 and last year. This new drama is set after the War and is about the effect that Owen’s death had on his mother Susan, played by talented newcomer Jodie Forshaw.

Davy, who now teaches acting, has a lifetime love of Owen's work and was tempted back to the stage by the power of Wilfred's poetry, which features as songs in the piece.

Writer Dean Johnson says, “Bullets And Daffodils featured some very high profile names such as Dean Sullivan and John Gorman. Willy Russell saw Davy's potential very early on in his career, and cast him in many great roles. It is amazing that Davy has agreed to narrate my new production.”

The voices of Christopher Timothy and Oliver Reed's son Mark also feature, and the script contains contributions from Dr Who writer David Quantick.

6^th & 7^th March 2014, The Lantern Theatre, 57 Blundell Street, L1 0AJ

Tickets: 0151 703 0000 or http://lanterntheatreliverpool.co.uk/events/theatre-of-war/

For further information, contact Dean Johnson – 07539 371925

The Wilfred Owen Story

34 Argyle Street

Birkenhead

CH41 6AE

Bullets and Daffodils 2014 Dates:

The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool:   6th - 7th March

The Wimbledon Theatre:   9th - 10th June

Civic Arts Centre, Oswaldtwistle, East Lancashire:  14th June 

Craiglockhart Collage Theatre,  Edinburgh:   1st - 2nd August

The Floral Pavilion new Brighton: 15th - 16th August

Blackfriars Theatre, Boston, Lincolnshire:  Friday 3rd October 

The Plowright Theatre, Scunthorpe:  6th November

Photo:  Jack, a puppet specially designed for "Bullets and Daffodils" by Jenz Manu

"A Service Rendered" - A Collection of Poems written during WW1: Review

Strictly speaking this is not about Female Poets but if you read the story you will surely understand why I could not leave out a mention of this amazing WW1 anthology of poems:

The First World War was the first ‘total’ war, involving men, women and children and affecting every country of the globe.  It is probably for that reason that World War One, which was also known as The Great War or The War to end all Wars, has been written about more than any other conflict.   As I began to research women who wrote poetry during WW1, I thought it was highly probable that there were still unpublished poems hidden away in attics, drawers and suitcases waiting to be heard.   This book proves me right.

William Murray Kilburn, born in Alva, Clackmannanshire, Scotland in 1887, lost his sight after he fell into a canal containing toxic waste.  William’s niece, Mae Murray McClymont, has collected together a remarkable tribute to her uncle in an anthology of the poems he wrote during the First World War.  According to family members, William used to walk to the local railway station and chat to wounded soldiers returning from the War.   The conversations he had inspired him to write poems, which Mae suggests, were his way of contributing to the war effort.  William died in 1942 at the age of fifty-four.

In the anthology of William’s poems called “A Service Rendered”, Mae McClymont has gathered together sixty-eight of the WW1 poems written by her uncle, covering pretty much every aspect of the War from the sea and the early days, through to the Balkans, Egypt, Galipoli and Cambrai.  There are poems dedicated to individuals as well as to regiments such as the Royal Scots Greys, the 42^nd Royal Highlanders, Irish Troopers, the Argylls, the Gordons, troopships, gun horses, mules, the Seaforths and more. 

William's poems would be remarkable enough if we did not know that the writer was blind. During the course of my research, I discovered that such poems were often published in pamphlet form and sold to raise funds for the war effort – perhaps this was the case with William’s poems?   Mae tells us that William's poems were published in the North-East Lanark Gazette.

Mae, who lives in Scotland, worked in the health service as a radiographer.  With a deep and enduring interest in poetry, she was unaware that her uncle William had written poetry until cousins in Canada brought them to her attention.    She searched for the poems in the library's microfiche records and found them, though the records were black, smudged and difficult to read.   Mae persevered and spent two winters typing up her uncle's poems.    The results is “A Service Rendered”, an anthology of WW1 poems written by William Murray Kilburn throughout the 1914 – 1919 years, edited and published by Mae Murray McClymont in 2013. The anthology is available from maemcclymont@gmail.com   The price is £6.95 with £2 postage and packing in the UK - £8.95.   Profits from the book are aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind.

With interests that range from literature, paintings,  music, and more recently, astronomy, Mae has travelled quite a bit, mainly in Europe, Canada and North America.  

Mae mentions that her uncle also wrote other poems – we hope she will collect those together too for this is a wonderful collection – for any serious student of the poetry of the First World War "A Service Rendered" is definitely is a must-read.  

To hear one of William's poems please click on the link: 

http://www.bestkeptsecrets.biz/2014/02/listen-again-review-of-service-rendered.html 

Rosaleen Louise ('Roz') Graves (1894 - 1989) - British

I have always liked the work of Robert Graves, so I was really pleased to discover his sister, Rosaleen to add to my growing list of female poets.

Rosaleen, sister of the WW1 soldier poet and writer Robert Graves, was born in Wimbledon on 7^th March 1894.   Her father was Alfred Perceval Graves, the second son of The Rt. Rev. Charles Graves, Bishop of Limerick. (1846 – 1931), a school inspector originally from Taunton, Somerset, and her mother was Amalie (‘Amy’) Elizabeth Sophie (or Sophia) von Ranke (1857 – 1951), eldest daughter of Professor Heinrich von Ranke MD, of Munich.  Rosaleen’s grandmother was the daughter of Norwegian astronomer Ludwig Tiarks.   Rosaleen’s father was an Anglo-Irish poet, born in Dublin.

Rosaleen was a poet and musician.  She trained as a doctor and became a general practitioner.  In the Spring of 1932, Rosaleen married James Francis Cooper at St. Martin’s in London.  The couple had three children.

Among her published works are “Night Sounds and other poems”, published by Basil Blackwell in Oxford in 1923, “Snapdragons Poems“ by Rosaleen Graves Cooper and “The Silver Mirror. Breton Folk Air, words translated from the Breton by A.P. Graves and arranged by R. Graves (1928).

Rosaleen died on 3^rd August 1989 in Wimbledon, London, England.

Rosario Maria Gutierrez Eskildsen (1899 - 1979) - Mexico

By seeking out poets from as many countries of the world as possible, I hope to highlight the global consequences of the Conflict.

Between 1910 and 1920, Mexico went through a period of political unrest. Mexico’s natural resources of oil and minerals were in demand from both sides during WW1.   Germany proposed an alliance via “The Zimmermann Telegraph – a diplomatic approach for Mexico to join the Central Powers - which was rejected.

Rosario was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico on 16^th April 1899. Her Father was Spanish and her Mother of Danish origin.   Rosario was left an orphan when her parents died and her elder sister kept the family together by giving piano lessons, while Rosario sold newspapers with her older brother.

Rosario moved to Mexico City to continue her studies while working as a primary school teacher – working during the day and attending evening classes at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, gaining first an MA in Spanish literature and then a doctorate in Spanish linguistics.

Rosario never married but she adopted a young teacher who she discovered had been orphaned during a visit to the school in which he taught.

She died in Mexico City in 1979.

Seeking biographical information on WW1 poet Madeline Ida Bedford

As you all know by now, I am researching women who wrote poetry during WW1 (as well as inspirational women and fascinating facts) for a series of exhibitions to commemorate the Centenary - Grandfather was an Old Contemptible and this is in his memory.  I spent hours yesterday, trying to find biographical details of the poet Madeline Ida Bedford without much success.  Madeline wrote a poem about women munition workers in WW1 that has now become famous.   In "The Soldiers Return", Rebecca West suggests the dates 1888 - 1956 for Madeline, however I can't find anything to confirm this and the dates do not appear to tally with any British registered births and deaths.

A Madeline Ida Bedford, father's name Edward Bedford, a civil engineer from Waterford, Ireland, married an Ernest Bolton Morris in St.Martins-in-the-Fields, London on 24th June 1919 . The records suggest that they had only one child, a daughter:

Madeline B Morris born Greenwich  1922 Oct-Nov-Dec - Mother's maiden name: Bedford

Madeline Bolton Green was the beneficiary of Madeline Ida Bolton Morris’s estate. A Madeline B Morris married a Bernard O. Green in Westminster in 1946 - Oct-Nov-Dec quarter.

Madeline Ida’s probate record indicates that her daughter’s husband’s name was Bernard Osborn Green.   It could be that Madeline's daughter is still alive and could tell us if her mother is indeed our lost poet.   Can anyone help please?

I have to thank Clive Barrett who broke off his own research into WW1 poet and artist Constance Ada Renshaw to help me.

Lucy London, 2nd February 2014

Winifred Mabel Letts - "Saint Brigid" on St. Brigid's Day - 1st February

Thank you so much to Bairbre O'Hogan, whose mother was a friend of Winifred M Letts when she lived in Ireland.

Bairbre reminded me that today - 1st February - is St. Brigid's day and sent me a scan of this beautiful poster, which the poet gave to Bairbre when she was born.  The image of St. Brigid, lambs and dandelion, was painted by Winifred's stepdaughter, Kathleen Verschoyle and was printed by the Cuala Press in Dublin.   The poem was written by Winifred M. Letts.

As a child, Bairbre remembers spending time with Winifred and being inspired by her.  Bairbre is currently researching Winifred's life and would be delighted to hear from anyone who has any information.

Bairbre can be contacted by e-mail:  researchingwmletts@gmail.com

Winifred M. Letts is featured in Volume 1 of "Female Poets of the First World War" - available from www.poshupnorth.com.