Educated at Shrewsbury School before going up to St. John’s
College, Cambridge to study Classics, John became a teacher and was Assistant
Master at Liverpool College from 1896 – 1901 when the family lived in Toxteth
on Merseyside. He wrote for “The Daily
Chronicle” and “The Tribune” newspapers.
In 1903, John married Maria Louisa Petrie in London and
they went to live in Lambeth, where John died on 16th April 1917.
John’s WW1 collection “And they went to the war: poems” was
published by Sidgwick & Jackson, London in October 1914.
Sources:
Michael Copp “Cambridge Poets of the Great War: An
Anthology” (Associated University Presses, London, 2001)
Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World
War: A Bibliograph” (St. Martin’s Press,
New York, 1978)
Find my Past and Free BMD websites.
From “Whitechapel” by John Arnold Nicklin (describing a volunteer)
A white and wolfish face, with fangs
Half-snarling out of flaccid lips:
Ann unkempt head that loosely hangs;
Shoulders that cower from gaoler’s grips;
Eyes
furtive in their greedy glance;
Slim
fingers not untaught to thieve; -He shambles forward to the chance
His whole life’s squalor to retrieve.
From Nicklin's WW1 collection.
