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Henry Newbolt
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Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (1862–1938) was an English poet and Minister of Information. He is best remembered for Vitaï Lampada, a lyrical piece used for propaganda purposes during the First World War.
as born on on 6 June 1862 in Bilston, Wolverhampton, then in Staffordshire, but now in the West Midlands, the son of the vicar of St Mary's Church, Rev. Henry Francis Newbolt, and his second wife, Emily.
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Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (1862–1938) was an English poet and Minister of Information. He is best remembered for Vitaï Lampada, a lyrical piece used for propaganda purposes during the First World War.
Background and family
He was born on on 6 June 1862 in Bilston, Wolverhampton, then in Staffordshire, but now in the West Midlands, the son of the vicar of St Mary's Church, Rev. Henry Francis Newbolt, and his second wife, Emily. (In his biography, My World as in My Time, he claims to have been Jewish). After his father's death, the family moved to Walsall, where Henry was educated. He attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and Caistor Grammar School, from where he gained a scholarship to Clifton College, where he was head of the school (1881) and edited the school magazine. His contemporaries there included Douglas Haig. Graduating from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Newbolt was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1887 and practised until 1899. He married Margaret Coltman. In 1914, Newbolt's only child, his daughter Celia, married Lt Col. Sir Ralph Furse (of the Furse Family of Devon). She died in 1975.
Publications
His first book was a novel, Taken from the Enemy (1892), and in 1895 he published a tragedy, Mordred; but it was the publication of his ballads, Admirals All (1897), that created his literary reputation. By far the best-known of these is "Vitai Lampada". They were followed by other volumes of stirring verse, including The Island Race (1898), The Sailing of the Long-ships (1902), Songs of the Sea (1904) and Songs of the Fleet (1910).
In 1914, Newbolt published Aladore, a fantasy novel about a bored but dutiful knight who abruptly abandons his estate and wealth to discover his heart's desire and woo a half-fae enchantress. It is a tale filled with allegories about the nature of youth, service, individuality and tradition. It was reissued in a limited and illustrated edition by Newcastle Publishing Company in 1975, as the new holders of the copyright.
Vitaï Lampada
Probably the best known of all Newbolt's poems and the one for which he is now chiefly remembered is Vitaï Lampada. It refers to how a future soldier learns stoicism in cricket matches in the famous Close at Clifton College:
- There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night
- Ten to make and the match to win
- A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
- An hour to play, and the last man in.
- And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.
- Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
- But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote
- "Play up! Play up! And play the game!"
- The sand of the desert is sodden red -
- Red with the wreck of a square that broke
- The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
- And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
- The river of death has brimmed its banks,
- And England's far, and Honour a name,
- But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks -
- "Play up! Play up! And play the game!"
- This is the word that year by year,
- While in her place the school is set,
- Every one of her sons must hear,
- And none that hears it dare forget.
- This they all with a joyful mind
- Bear through life like a torch in flame,
- And falling fling to the host behind -
- "Play up! Play up! And play the game!"
The poem was both highly regarded and repeatedly satirised by those who experienced World War I.
Drake's Drum
According to legend a drum owned by Sir Francis Drake will beat in times of national crisis and the spirit of Drake will return to aid his country. Henry Newbolt reinforced the myth, with his 1897 poem Drake's Drum, which has been put to both classical and folk tunes.
Monthly Review
Between 1900 and 1905, Newbolt was the editor of the Monthly Review. He was also a member of the Coefficients dining club.
Honours
Newbolt was knighted in 1915 and was awarded the 'Companion of Honour' in 1922. In his home town of Bilston, a public house was named after him, and a blue plaque is displayed on a modern building in the street where he was born.
Ella Coltman
Playing the Game: A Biography of Sir Henry Newbolt, by Susan Chitty, claimed that he and his wife, Margaret, each had a sexual relationship with Margaret's cousin, Ella Coltman, who even accompanied them on their honeymoon. One of Newbolt's later poems is entitled "To E.C." and in it he refers to E.C. as "dearest."
Death
Newbolt died at his home in Kensington, London, on 19 April 1938.
Works
- Admirals All (1897) including Drake's Drum
- The Old Country (1906)
- The New June (1909)
- The Naval History of the Great War (1920)
- A Ballad of Sir Pertab Singh
- He Fell among Thieves
- Admirals All
Sources and References
- *"A Perpetual Memory and other Poems", an anthology by Sr Henry Newbolt, pub 1939 by John Murray.
- Furse faily archives, various, 2007.
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