Humbert Wolfe CB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (5 January 1885, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 – 5 January 1940), was an Italian-born English poet, man of letters

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...

 and civil servant, from a Jewish family background, his father, Martin Wolff of German descent and his mother, Consuela, née Terraccini, Italian. He was brought up in Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

 and was a pupil at Bradford Grammar School

Bradford Grammar School

Bradford Grammar School is a co-educational, independent school in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire. Headmaster, Stephen Davidson is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference . The school was founded in 1548 and granted its Charter by King Charles II in 1662...

.

He was one of the most popular authors of the 1920s. He is now remembered for his epigram

Epigram

An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....

:

You cannot hope to bribe or twist,

thank God! the British journalist.

But, seeing what the man will do

unbribed, there's no occasion to.

He was also a translator of Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

, Edmond Fleg (1874–1963) and Eugene Heltai. A Christian convert, he remained very aware of his Jewish heritage.

His career was in the Civil Service, beginning in the Board of Trade

Board of Trade

The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...

 and then in the Ministry of Labour

Ministry of Labour

The Ministry of Labour was a British civil service department established by the New Ministries and Secretaries Act 1916. It was renamed the Employment Department in 1988, and finally abolished in 1995...

. By 1940 he had a position of high responsibility. His work was recognised with a CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 and then a CB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

.

Wolfe's verses have been set to music by a number of composers, including Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

 in his 12 Humbert Wolfe Settings, Op. 48 (1929).

He had a long-term affair with the novelist Pamela Frankau

Pamela Frankau

Pamela Frankau was a popular British novelist. Her parents were Dorothea Frances Markham Drummond-Black and the novelist Gilbert Frankau and her grandmother the satirist Julia Frankau. Her uncle was the British radio comedian, Ronald Frankau.She had success as a writer from a young age...

, while remaining married.

He died on his 55th birthday.

Works

• London sonnets (1920)
• Shylock reasons with Mr. Chesterton: and other poems (1920)
• Circular saws (1923)
• Labour supply and regulation (1923)
• The Lilac (1924)
• Lampoons (1925)
• The Unknown Goddess (1925) poems
• Humoresque (1926)
• News of the Devil (1926) poems
• Requiem (1927) poems
• Cursory Rhymes (1927) poems
• Others Abide (1927)
• Kensington Gardens (1924)
• Dialogues and monologues (1928) criticism
• This Blind Rose (1928) poems
• Troy (1928) Faber & Gwyer, Ariel poems
  Ariel poems (Faber)
  The Ariel poems were a series of pamphlets published by Faber and Gwyer which contained illustrated poems....
  
  
• The Moon and Mrs. Misses Smith (1928)
• The Craft of Verse (1928) essay
• The Silver Cat and other poems (1928)
• Notes on English Verse Satires (1929)
• A Winter Miscellany (1930) editor
• Tennyson (1930)
• The Uncelestial City (1930)
• Early Poems (1930)
• George Moore (1931)
• Snow (1931) poems
• Signpost to poetry (1931)
• Reverie of policeman: A ballet in three acts (1933)
• Now a stranger (1933) autobiography
• Romantic and unromantic poetry 1933
• Portraits by inference (1934)
• Sonnets pour Helene (by Ronsard) (1934) translator
• X at Oberammergau : A poem (1935) drama
• The Fourth of August (1935) poems
• Selected Lyrics of Heinrich Heine (1935) translator
• P. L. M.: Peoples Landfalls Mountains 1936
• The Pilgrim's Way (1936)
• The Silent Knight : A romantic comedy in the year 1937
• Others Abide: Translated Greek Epigrams 1937
• The Upward Anguish (1938) autobiography
• Out of Great Tribulation (1939) poems
• Kensington Gardens in War-Time (1940) poems

Other Sources

• Philip Bagguley, Harlequin in Whitehall: a Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant 1885-1940 (1997).
• Helen Ferris, Favorite Poems Old and New (1957).