Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE,
MCThe Military Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an
English poetThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
and author. He became known as a writer of
satiricalSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
anti-war
versePoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. He later won acclaim for his prose work.
Early life and education
Siegfried Sassoon was born at Weirleigh hospital (which still stands) in
MatfieldMatfield is a small village, part of the civil parish of Brenchley, in the Tunbridge Wells Borough of Kent, England. A striking feature of the village is a large pond on the village green...
,
KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
, to a
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish father and an
Anglo-CatholicAnglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures...
mother. His father, Alfred Ezra Sassoon (1861-1895) (son of
Sassoon David SassoonSassoon David Sassoon , a British Indian merchant, was born at Bombay , a member of a family settled there since the beginning of the 16th century, and previously in Spain...
), came from the wealthy Indian
Baghdadi JewishThe Baghdadi Jews are one of the main Jewish communities of India.The "Baghdadi" Jewish community of India is so called because its members were chiefly descended from Iraqi Jewish immigrants to India who moved to that country during the British Raj...
SassoonThe Sassoon family is a family of international renown, which originated in the Jewish community of Baghdad, said to have originally been descended from Ibn Shoshans, of Spain....
merchant family but was disinherited for marrying outside the faith. His mother, Theresa, belonged to the
Thornycroft familyThe Thornycroft family was a notable English family of sculptors, artists and engineers, connected by marriage to the historic Sassoon family. The earliest known mention of the family is stated in George Ormerod's History of Cheshire as during the reign of Henry III in the thirteenth century,...
, sculptors responsible for many of the best-known statues in London—her brother was Sir
Hamo ThornycroftSir William "Hamo" Thornycroft, RA was a British sculptor, responsible for several London landmarks.Hamo Thornycroft belonged to the Thornycroft family of sculptors. His father, Thomas and mother Mary and grandfather John Francis were all distinguished sculptors. He was born in London...
. There was no German ancestry in Sassoon's family; he owed his unusual first name to his mother's predilection for the operas of
WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
. His middle name was taken from the surname of a clergyman with whom she was friendly.
He was the second of three sons, the others being Michael and Hamo (named after his uncle). When Sassoon was four years old, his parents split up. His father would visit the boys weekly at their family home, but Theresa would lock herself in the drawing room, still deeply upset by the situation.
In 1894 Alfred Sassoon died of
tuberculosisTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
, leaving Sassoon devastated.
Sassoon was educated at
The New Beacon Preparatory SchoolThe New Beacon Preparatory School is a fee-paying preparatory school, or prep school, located in Sevenoaks, Kent, United Kingdom, which caters both for day-boys and boarders, in the age range 4-13. Currently there are about 400 pupils.- Overview :...
, Kent,
Marlborough CollegeMarlborough College is an English independent, co-educational boarding school located in Marlborough, Wiltshire.Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 800 pupils,...
in
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
(at
Cotton House, Marlborough College), and at
Clare College, CambridgeClare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on the "the Backs"...
, (of which he was made an honorary fellow in 1953) where he studied both
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
and
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
from 1905 to 1907. However, he dropped out of university without a degree and spent the next few years hunting, playing cricket and privately publishing a few volumes of not very highly acclaimed poetry. His income was just enough to prevent his having to seek work, but not enough to live extravagantly. His first real success was
The Daffodil Murderer, a parody of
The Everlasting Mercy by
John MasefieldJohn Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
, published in 1913 under the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
of "Saul Kain".
War service
Motivated by patriotism, Sassoon joined the
militaryA military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military...
just as the threat of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
was realised and was in service with the Sussex Yeomanry on the day the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
declared war (4 August 1914). He broke his arm badly in a riding accident and was put out of action before even leaving England, spending the spring of 1915 convalescing. At around this time his younger brother Hamo was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign (
Rupert BrookeRupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War ; however, he never experienced combat at first hand...
, whom Siegfried had briefly met, died on the way there); Hamo's death hit Siegfried very hard. He was commissioned into 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve),
Royal Welch FusiliersThe Royal Welch Fusiliers were a regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. It was founded in 1689 to oppose James II and the imminent war with France...
as a
second lieutenantSecond Lieutenant is the lowest commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.In British English the rank is pronounced second /lɛf'tɛnənt/ , while in American English it is pronounced second /lu'tɛnənt/ ....
on 29 May 1915, and in November, he was sent to the 1st Battalion in France. He was thus brought into contact with
Robert GravesGraves considered himself a poet first and foremost. His poems, together with his translations and innovative interpretations of the Greek Myths, his memoir of the First World war, Good-bye to All That, and his historical study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, have never been out of...
and they became close friends. United by their poetic vocation, they often read and discussed one another's work. Though this did not have much perceptible influence on Graves's poetry, his views on what may be called 'gritty realism' profoundly affected Sassoon's concept of what constituted poetry. He soon became horrified by the realities of war, and the tone of his writing changed completely: where his early poems exhibit a
RomanticRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
dilettantish sweetness, his war poetry moves to an increasingly discordant music, intended to convey the ugly truths of the trenches to an audience hitherto lulled by patriotic
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
. Details such as rotting corpses, mangled limbs, filth, cowardice and suicide are all trademarks of his work at this time, and this philosophy of 'no truth unfitting' had a significant effect on the movement towards Modernist poetry.
Sassoon's periods of duty on the
Western FrontFollowing the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
were marked by exceptionally brave actions, including the single-handed capture of a German trench in the
Hindenburg LineThe Hindenburg Line was a vast system of defences in northeastern France during World War I. It was constructed by the Germans during the winter of 1916–17...
. He often went out on night-raids and bombing patrols and demonstrated ruthless efficiency as a company commander. Deepening
depressionIn psychology and psychiatry, depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity. While most often described as a disease or dysfunction, there are also strong arguments for seeing depression as an adaptive defense mechanism....
at the horror and misery the soldiers were forced to endure produced in Sassoon a paradoxically manic courage, and he was nicknamed "Mad Jack" by his men for his near-suicidal exploits. On 27 July 1916 he was awarded the
Military CrossThe Military Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
; the citation read:
He was also (unsuccessfully) recommended for the
Victoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration which is, or has been, awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories. It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations and medals...
for the capture of the German trench.
Despite his decoration and reputation, he decided in 1917 to make a stand against the conduct of the war. One of the reasons for his violent anti-war feeling was the death of his friend, David Cuthbert Thomas (called "Dick Tiltwood" in the
Sherston trilogyA series of books by the English poet and novelist, Siegfried Sassoon, consisting of Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, and Sherston's Progress...
). He would spend years trying to overcome his grief.
At the end of a spell of convalescent leave, Sassoon declined to return to duty; instead, encouraged by pacifist friends such as
Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was an English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the...
and
Lady Ottoline MorrellThe Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers such as Aldous Huxley, Siegfried Sassoon, T. S. Eliot and D. H...
, he sent a letter to his commanding officer titled A Soldier’s Declaration, which was forwarded to the press and read out in Parliament by a sympathetic MP. Rather than
court-martialA court-martial is a military court. These military courts can determine punishments for members of the military subject to military law who are found guilty or may dismiss the charges based on the evidence and the case presented. Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in...
Sassoon, the
Under-Secretary of State for WarThe position of Under-Secretary of State for War was a British government position, first applied to Evan Nepean . In 1801 the offices for War and the Colonies were merged and the post became that of Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies...
, Ian Macpherson decided that he was unfit for service and had him sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital near
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, where he was officially treated for
neurastheniaNeurasthenia is a psycho-pathological term first used by George Miller Beard in 1869 to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia and depressed mood.[The term had been used at least as early as 1829 to label a mechanical weakness of the actual...]
("
shell shockShell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....
"). Before declining to return to service he had thrown the ribbon from his Military Cross into the river
MerseyMersey may refer to:* River Mersey, in northwest England* Mersey River in the Australian state* Mersey River , in Canada* Mersey , wrecked off Torres Strait, Australia, in 1805...
; however in May 2007 the medal itself turned up in an attic at the house in Mull where his son had lived. The medal has been bought by the
Royal Welch FusiliersThe Royal Welch Fusiliers were a regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. It was founded in 1689 to oppose James II and the imminent war with France...
for display at their museum in
CaernarfonCaernarfon is a royal town in Gwynedd, northwest Wales....
..
The
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
RegenerationFor the 1997 film adaptation of the novel see Regeneration .Regeneration is a prize-winning novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication...
, by
Pat BarkerPat Barker is an English writer and historian. She published her first novel, Union Street, in 1982 and has since won critical acclaim for her First World War series, the Regeneration trilogy, a fictionalised account of the wartime experiences of the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the...
, is a fictionalised account of this period in Sassoon's life, and was made into a
filmRegeneration is a 1997 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Pat Barker. The film is directed by Gillies MacKinnon. It was released as Behind the Lines in the USA in 1998.-Plot:...
starring
James WilbyJames Jonathon Wilby is a British actor for film, TV and stage.-Biography:He was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father...
as Sassoon and
Jonathan PryceJonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor/singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and marrying English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
as
W. H. R. RiversWilliam Halse Rivers Rivers,
FRCP,
FRS, was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work with shell-shocked soldiers during World War I. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon...
, the psychiatrist responsible for Sassoon's treatment. Rivers became a kind of surrogate father to the troubled young man, and his sudden death in 1922 was a major blow to Sassoon.
At Craiglockhart, Sassoon met
Wilfred OwenWilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English and Welsh poet and soldier, regarded by many as one of the leading poets of the First World War...
, another poet who would eventually exceed him in fame. It was thanks to Sassoon that Owen persevered in his ambition to write better poetry. A manuscript copy of Owen's
Anthem for Doomed Youth"Anthem for Doomed Youth" is a well-known popular poem written by Wilfred Owen which incorporates the themes of the horror of war. It employs the traditional form of a petrarchan sonnet, but it uses the rhyme scheme of an English sonnet. Much of the second half of the poem is dedicated to funeral...
containing Sassoon's handwritten amendments survives as testimony to the extent of his influence and is currently on display at London's
Imperial War MuseumThe Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
. To all intents and purposes, Sassoon became to Owen "
KeatsJohn Keats was an English poet, who became one of the key figures of the Romantic movement. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Keats was one of the second generation Romantic poets...
and Christ and Elijah"; surviving documents demonstrate clearly the depth of Owen's love and admiration for him. Both men returned to active service in France, but Owen was killed in 1918. Sassoon, despite all this was promoted to
lieutenantFirst Lieutenant is a military rank.The rank of Lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
, and having spent some time out of danger in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
, eventually returned to the Front and was almost immediately wounded again—by
friendly fireFriendly fire is an expression meaning fire from one's own side or allied forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces, and was a tactic originally adopted by the United States military....
, but this time in the head—and spent the remainder of the war in Britain. By this time he had been promoted acting
captainCaptain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
, he relinquished his commission on health grounds on 12 March 1919, and was allowed to retain the rank of captain. After the war, Sassoon was instrumental in bringing Owen's work to the attention of a wider audience. Their friendship is the subject of Stephen MacDonald's play,
Not About HeroesNot About Heroes is a drama by Stephen MacDonald about the real-life relationship between the poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. written in 1928...
.
Post-war
The war had brought Sassoon into contact with men from less advantaged backgrounds, and he had developed Socialist sympathies. Having lived for a period at
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
, where he spent more time visiting literary friends than studying, he dabbled briefly in the politics of the Labour movement, and in 1919 took up a post as literary editor of the socialist
Daily HeraldThe Daily Herald was a British newspaper, published in London from 1912 to 1964 . It ceased publication when it was relaunched as The Sun.- Origins :...
. During his period at the
Herald, Sassoon was responsible for employing several eminent names as reviewers, including
E. M. ForsterEdward Morgan Forster OM, CH , was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy and also the attitudes towards gender and homosexuality in early 20th-century British society...
and
Charlotte MewCharlotte Mary Mew was an English poet, whose work spans the cusp between Victorian poetry and Modernism.She was born in Bloomsbury, London the daughter of the architect Frederick Mew, who designed Hampstead town hall...
, and commissioned original material from "names" like
Arnold BennettEnoch Arnold Bennett was an English novelist.- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent...
and
Osbert SitwellSir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet, was an English writer. His elder sister was Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell and his younger brother was Sir Sacheverell Sitwell; like them he devoted his life to art and literature....
. His artistic interests extended to music. While at Oxford he was introduced to the young
William WaltonSir William Turner Walton OM was a British composer and conductor.His style was influenced by the works of Stravinsky and Prokofiev as well as jazz music, and is characterized by rhythmic vitality, bittersweet harmony, sweeping Romantic melody and brilliant orchestration...
, whose friend and patron he became. Walton later dedicated his
Portsmouth PointPortsmouth Point, or "Spice Island", is part of Old Portsmouth in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on the southern coast of England. The name Spice Island comes from the areas involvement in the trade of Caribbean spices...
overture to Sassoon in recognition of his financial assistance and moral support.
Sassoon later embarked on a lecture tour of the USA, as well as travelling in Europe and throughout Britain. He acquired a car, a gift from the publisher Frankie Schuster, and became renowned among his friends for his lack of driving skill, but this did not prevent him making full use of the mobility it gave him.
Meanwhile, he was beginning to practise his homosexuality more openly, embarking on an affair with artist Gabriel Atkin, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friends. During his US tour, he met a young actor who treated him callously. Nevertheless, he was adored by female audiences, including one at
Vassar CollegeVassar College is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college situated in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. Founded as a women's college in 1861, it became coeducational in 1969.-Overview:...
.
Sassoon was a great admirer of the Welsh poet
Henry VaughanHenry Vaughan was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.Vaughan and his twin brother, the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and Denise Morgan of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales.Vaughan spent most of his life in the village of...
. On a visit to Wales in 1923, he paid a pilgrimage to Vaughan's grave at Llansanffraid,
PowysPowys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire, and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,196 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...
, and there wrote one of his best-known peacetime poems,
At the Grave of Henry Vaughan. The deaths of three of his closest friends,
Edmund GosseSir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic, the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Career:...
,
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels...
and Frankie Schuster (the publisher), within a short space of time, came as another serious setback to his personal happiness.
At the same time, Sassoon was preparing to take a new direction. While in America, he had experimented with a
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. In 1928, he branched out into prose, with
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting ManMemoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature...
, the anonymously-published first volume of a fictionalised
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, which was almost immediately accepted as a classic, bringing its author new fame as a humorous writer. The book won the 1928
James Tait Black AwardFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for fiction. Sassoon followed it with
Memoirs of an Infantry OfficerMemoirs of an Infantry Officer is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1930. It is a fictionalised account of Sassoon's own life during and immediately after World War I...
(1930) and
Sherston's Progress (1936). In later years, he revisited his youth and early manhood with three volumes of genuine autobiography, which were also widely acclaimed. These were
The Old Century,
The Weald of Youth and
Siegfried's Journey.
Sassoon, having matured greatly as a result of his military service, continued to seek emotional fulfillment, which he at first attempted to find in a succession of love affairs with men, including the actor
Ivor NovelloDavid Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the early 20th century.-Biography:...
; Novello's former lover, the actor
Glen Byam ShawGlen Byam Shaw was an English actor and theatre director.He was born Glencairn Alexander Byam Shaw in London, the son of artist John Liston Byam Shaw. After a youthful relationship with the poet, Siegfried Sassoon , he married the actress, Angela Baddeley...
; German aristocrat Prince Philipp of Hesse; the writer Beverley Nichols; and an effete aristocrat,
the Hon. Stephen TennantStephen James Napier Tennant was a British aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle. It is said, albeit apocryphally, that he spent most of his life in bed....
. Only the last of these made a permanent impression, though Shaw remained his close friend throughout his life. In December 1933, to many people's surprise, Sassoon married Hester Gatty, who was many years his junior; this led to the birth of a child, something which he had long craved. This child, their only child,
GeorgeGeorge Thornycroft Sassoon was an English scientist, electronic engineer, linguist, translator and author....
(1936-2006) became a noted scientist, linguist and author, and was adored by Siegfried, who wrote several poems addressed to him. However, the marriage broke down after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Sassoon apparently unable to find a compromise between the solitude he enjoyed and the companionship he craved.
Separated from his wife in 1945, Sassoon lived in seclusion at Heytesbury in
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
, although he maintained contact with a circle which included
E. M. ForsterEdward Morgan Forster OM, CH , was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy and also the attitudes towards gender and homosexuality in early 20th-century British society...
and
J. R. AckerleyJ. R. Ackerley was arts editor of The Listener, the weekly magazine of the BBC...
. One of his closest friends was the young cricketer
Dennis SilkDennis Raoul Whitehall Silk, CBE, , is a former schoolmaster and international cricketer. He was also a close friend of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, about whom he has spoken and written extensively....
. He formed a close friendship with Vivien Hancock, headmistress of Greenways School at
Ashton GiffordAshton Gifford House is a Grade II listed building in the hamlet of Ashton Gifford, Codford in the British county of Wiltshire. The house was built during the early 19th century, following the precepts of traditional Georgian architecture. The estate eventually replaced the hamlet or tything of...
, which his son
GeorgeGeorge Thornycroft Sassoon was an English scientist, electronic engineer, linguist, translator and author....
attended. The relationship provoked Hester to make some strong accusations against Vivien Hancock, who responded with the threat of legal action. Sassoon was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1951 New Year Honours. Towards the end of his long life, he was converted to Roman Catholicism, and was admitted to the faith at
Downside AbbeyThe Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery and the Senior House of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is a school for children aged nine to eighteen...
, close to his home. He also paid regular visits to the nuns at
Stanbrook AbbeyStanbrook Abbey is an abbey built as a contemplative house for Benedictine nuns. It was founded in 1625 in Cambrai, Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, under the auspices of the English Benedictine Congregation.-History:...
, and the abbey press printed commemorative editions of some of his poems. During this time he also became interested in the
supernaturalThe term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others...
, and joined the Ghost Club.
He died seven days before his 81st birthday, and is buried at
St Andrew's Church, MellsSt Andrew's Church is a notable Church of England parish church located in the village of Mells in the English county of Somerset.-History:The church predominantly dates from the late 15th century with mid 19th century restoration...
,
SomersetSomerset is a county in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west...
, close to
Ronald KnoxMsgr. Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English theologian, priest and crime writer.-Life:Ronald Knox was born in Leicestershire, England into an Anglican family , and was educated at Eton College, where he took the first scholarship in 1900 and Balliol College, Oxford, where again he...
, a Roman Catholic priest and writer whom he admired.
Legacy
On 11 November 1985, Sassoon was among sixteen Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by friend and fellow War poet
Wilfred OwenWilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English and Welsh poet and soldier, regarded by many as one of the leading poets of the First World War...
. It reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."
Siegfried Sassoon's only child,
George SassoonGeorge Thornycroft Sassoon was an English scientist, electronic engineer, linguist, translator and author....
, died of cancer in 2006. George had three children, two of whom were killed in a car crash in 1996.
In 2009, the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
announced plans to purchase a valuable collection of Sassoon's papers from his family. The intention is to add these to the university library's existing Sassoon collection.
Several of Sassoon's poems have been set to music, some during his lifetime, notably by
Cyril RoothamCyril Bradley Rootham was an English composer, educator, organist and important figure in Cambridge music life.-Biography:...
.
Poetry
- The Daffodil Murderer (John Richmond: 1913)
- The Old Huntsman
The Old Huntsman is a 1917 collection of poems by Siegfried Sassoon and the name of the first poem in the collection....
(HeinemannHeinemann may refer to:* Heinemann , a publishing company* Heinemann Park, aka. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans-People:* Barbara Heinemann Landmann , Alsatian pietist* Ed Heinemann , American aircraft designer...
: 1917)
- They
They is a 1917 poem by the English soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon published in The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. It disparages the attitude of the established church to the Great War....
- Glory of Women (written: 1917)
- The General (Denmark Hill Hospital, April 1917)
- Does it Matter? (written: 1917)
- Counter-Attack (Heinemann: 1918)
- Dreamers
"Dreamers" is the second single from Jack Savoretti taken from his debut album, Between the Minds.It spent a total of two weeks in the UK Singles Chart, debuting at 123 then falling to 159 a week later. It reached number 23 on the UK Airplay Chart....
(written 1918)
- Suicide in the Trenches
Suicide in the Trenches is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon, written during his First World War military service and published in his 1918 collection: Counter-Attack and Other Poems.-The Poem:I knew a simple soldier boy
...
(Heinemann: 1918)
- The Hero [Henry Holt, 1918]
- Picture-Show (Heinemann: 1919)
- War Poems (Heinemann: 1919)
- Aftermath (Heinemann: 1920)
- Recreations (privately printed: 1923)
- Lingual Exercises for Advanced Vocabularians (privately printed: 1925)
- Selected Poems (Heinemann: 1925)
- Satirical Poems (Heinemann: 1926)
- The Heart's Journey (Heinemann: 1928)
- Poems by Pinchbeck Lyre (Duckworth
Gerald de l'Etang Duckworth was a British publisher.-Background and early life:Duckworth was a son of Herbert Duckworth, a London barrister, by his wife Julia Jackson. His middle name, de l'Etang, was the surname of one of his mother's ancestors, Antoine de l'Etang, a page to Queen Marie Antoinette...
: 1931)
- The Road to Ruin (Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music books,...
: 1933)
- Vigils (Heinemann: 1935)
- Rhymed Ruminations (Faber and Faber: 1940)
- Poems Newly Selected (Faber and Faber: 1940)
- Collected Poems (Faber and Faber: 1947)
- Common Chords (privately printed: 1950/1951)
- Emblems of Experience (privately printed: 1951)
- The Tasking (privately printed: 1954)
- Sequences (Faber and Faber: 1956)
- Lenten Illuminations (Downside Abbey: 1959)
- The Path to Peace (Stanbrook Abbey Press: 1960)
- Collected Poems 1908-1956 (Faber and Faber: 1961)
- The War Poems ed. Rupert Hart-Davis
Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis was an English publisher, editor and man of letters. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd...
(Faber and Faber: 1983)
Prose
- Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature...
(Faber & Gwyer: 1928)
- Memoirs of an Infantry Officer
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1930. It is a fictionalised account of Sassoon's own life during and immediately after World War I...
(Faber and Faber: 1930)
- Sherston's Progress
Sherston's Progress is the final book of Siegfried Sassoon's semi-autobiographical trilogy. It is preceded by Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer....
(Faber and Faber: 1936)
- Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (Faber and Faber: 1937)
- The Old Century (Faber and Faber: 1938)
- On Poetry (University of Bristol Press: 1939)
- The Weald of Youth (Faber and Faber: 1942)
- Siegfried's Journey (Faber and Faber: 1945)
- Meredith (Constable: 1948) - Biography of George Meredith
George Meredith, OM was an English novelist and poet during the Victorian era.- Life :Meredith was born in Portsmouth, England, a son and grandson of naval outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, where he remained for...
External links