Born Stephen Henry Critten on 22nd
February 1887 in Southwold, Suffolk, Stephen's parents were George Miller Critten, an insurance agent who later became a shipwright, and his wife Emma
Critten, nee Lambert. The family lived
in Suffolk but in 1911 were registered as living in West Ham, London. Stephen’s siblings were Dorothea, b. 1880,
Katherine or Catherine, b. 1882 and Percy, b. 1885. Like Stephen, his siblings became school
teachers.
Stephen studied to become a school teacher at St. Mark’s
Training College in Chelsea, London. He
then worked as a teacher at Earlsmead Council School in Tottenham from 1907
until 1913 and at Culvert Road Council School from 1913 until 1927, with a
break for military service.
Stephen joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Private
and served on the Western Front from 1914 until 1919. Many of his WW1 poems were written in France
in 1918.
By the time of the 1921 Census, Stephen was living in Ilford, Essex. In 1928, with the name Stephen Southwold, he married Edith Ann Sebra Bill and they lived in Herne Bay, Kent.. In 1939, Stephen and Edith were living in Brixham, Devonshire and Stephen listed his occupation as “Author”.
Apart from poems, Stephen, who changed his surname to
Southwold, wrote children’s stories, novels and science fiction and used the
pen names Neil Bell, Miles, Stephen Green, S.H. Lambert and Paul Martens.
His WW1 poetry collection “The Common Day: Poems” was
published by Allen & Unwin in 1915.
For further information about Stephen and to read some of
his poems, please see Andrew Southwold’s Facebook page dedicated to his
grandfather https://www.facebook.com/StephenSouthwold/
Sources:
Find my Past and Free BMD
Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War:
A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) and information from the
Facebook Page Stephen Southwold kindly supplied by Andrew Southwold.
