Cecil Edward Chesterton (1879 - 1918) – British poet, writer and journalist

Younger brother of the poet and writer G.K. Chesterton

Cecil Edward Chesterton was born on 12th November 1879 in Kensington, London, UK. His parents were Edward Chesterton, a surveyor and auctioneer, and his wife Marie Louise Chesterton, nee Grosjean, whose family were of Swiss origin.   Cecil had a brother, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, born in 1875, and a sister, Beatrice Elizabeth, who was born in 1871 and died in 1878.

Educated at St. Paul’s School in London, Cecil went on to train as a surveyor and estate agent.  He wrote for “The New Age” magazine and later worked for a publishing company.

In 1912 Cecil purchased Hilaire Beloc’s magazine “The Eye-Witness” and re-named it “The New Witness”, editing the magazine for four years.   In 1916, he married writer and journalist Ada Elizabeth Jones.

During the First World War, Cecil joined The Highland Light Infantry as a Private and served on the Western Front.  Wounded three times he returned to the trenches and was taken ill but refused to leave his post before the Armistice was signed.  Cecil was taken into hospital where he died on 6th December 1918 with his wife at his side.   Ada was also able to attend her husband’s funeral.  Cecil was buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, Pas de Calais, France.

Cecil  had poems published in twelve WW1 poetry anthologies.

"FRANCE"

"FRANCE"

BECAUSE for once the sword broke in her hand,

The words she spoke seemed perished for a space;

All wrong was brazen, and in every land

The tyrants walked abroad with naked face.

The waters turned to blood, as rose the Star

Of evil Fate denying all release.

The rulers smote, the feeble crying "War!"

The usurers robbed, the naked crying "Peace!"

And her own feet were caught in nets of gold,

And her own soul profaned by sects that squirm,

And little men climbed her high seats and sold

Her honour to the vulture and the worm.

And she seemed broken and they thought her dead,

The Overmen, so brave against the weak.

Has your last word of sophistry been said,

O cult of slaves? Then it is hers to speak.

Clear the slow mists from her half-darkened eyes,

As slow mists parted over Valmy fell,

As once again her hands in high surprise

Take hold upon the battlements of Hell.

From “A Treasury of war poetry:  British and American poems of the World War, 1914 – 1917” (Houghton & Miflin, Boston, Mass., USA, 1917)

Sources: Wikipedia, Find my Past and

Catherine W. Reilly.- “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 83.

NOTE:  "Oppy Wood, 1917, Evening" by John Nash (Art. IWM ART 2243)

Oppy Wood is in Arras, France. After the fall of Vimy Ridge, the Germans withdrew to the high ground of Oppy Wood, North East of Arras, The Capture of Oppy Wood was an engagement between May and June 1917.

John Northcote Nash CBE, RA (11 April 1893 – 23 September 1977) was a British artist. He was the younger brother of the artist Paul Nash.  John's health initially prevented him enlisting at the outbreak of the First World War but his health improved and from November 1916 to January 1918 he served in the Artists Rifles, the unit that his brother had joined in 1914 before taking a commission in the Hampshire Regiment. John served as a sergeant at the Battle of Passchendaele and at the battle of Cambrai. On the recommendation of his brother, from 1918 John worked as an official war artist from 1918.

Donald Alxander Mackenzie MA MC (1889 - 1971) – British school teacher

With thanks to Sue Robinson of the Group Wenches in Trenches for sending this poem

Donald Alexander Mackenzie was born in Wigan, Lancashire, UK on 1st June 1889. His parents were Duncan Mackenzie, a commercial traveller, and his wife, Jessie, who were both from Scotland.  Donald had the following siblings: Finlay Mackenzie, b. 1874, Annie Mackenzie, b. 1876, Maggie Mackenzie, b. 1878 and William Mackenzie, b. 1880.

Educated at Standishgate Weslyan School and Wigan Grammar School, he went on to study at Victoria University, Manchester. 

Donald became a teacher and taught at Carre’s Grammar School, Sleaford, 1910-1913, Central Secondary School, Sheffield, 1913-1920. 

Volunteering for service during the First World War, Donald served initially as a Lieutenant in C Battery, 317th (Northumberland) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery TF for four years. 

He wrote a poem about Wigan, originally entitled “Home Thoughts from France” while on the Somme in May 1918.

After the war Donald became Secretary for Higher Education, Sheffield, Assistant Editor of “Teachers’ World” until 1944, Principal of Gaumont British Education Division, 1944-1949.  In 1951 he was working as a freelance journalist, living at ‘The Grove’, Greville Park Avenue, Ashstead, Surrey.

Donald died in Worthing, Sussex in 1971.

Sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD and https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Docs/PDF/Resident/Leisure/Museums-and-archives/archives/Past-Forward/pf33.pdf

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936) – British writer, playwright, art critic, poet and artist

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London, UK on 29th May 1874. His parents were Edward Chesterton, an auctioneer and surveyor, and his wife, Marie Louise, née Grosjean.  Gilbert had two siblings - a brother, Cecil, b. 1879, and a sister, Beatrice Elizabeth, who was born in 1871 and died in 1878.

Educated at St Paul's School, Gilbert went on to study at the Slade School of Art, planning to become an illustrator. As an adult, Gilbert was a large man, 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and about 20 stone 6 pounds (130 kg; 286 lb) in weight. His rotund girth gave rise to an anecdote during the First World War, when a lady in London asked why he was not "out at the Front"; he replied, "If you go round to the side, you will see that I am." 

On 28th June 1901, Gilbert married Frances Blogg in St Mary Abbots, Kensington.  Frances was also a poet, (see http://femalewarpoets.blogspot.com/2022/03/frances-chesterton-1869-1938-british.html).  She was passionate about her husband’s writing, encouraged him and acted as his personal assistant. In 1909 the couple moved to Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where they lived until their deaths. 

Gilbert served as a member of the British Propaganda Bureau during WW1.

As well as being a poet, writer and journalist, Gilbert was also a talented artist. He illustrated several books. 

Cecil, who also became a poet, joined the Highland Light Infantry as a Private and served on the Western Front.  Wounded three times, Cecil died on 6th December 1918.

Gilbert died on 14th June 1936, and his wife, Frances, died on 12th December 1938.

Gilbert’s WW1 poetry collections were:

“Poems” (Burns & Oats, 1915)

“The Ballad of St. Barbara and other verses” (Cecil Palmer, 1922)

"Collected poems" (Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1927) 

“Collected poems” (Methuen, 1933)

and he had poems published in 25 WW1 anthologies. 

Captain Charles Fryatt

TO CAPTAIN FRYATT*

TRAMPLED yet red is the last of the embers,

Red the last cloud of a sun that has set;

What of your sleeping though Flanders remembers,

What of your waking, if England forget?

Why should you share in the hearts that we harden,

In the shame of our nature, who see it and live?

How more than the godly the greedy can pardon,

How well and how quickly the hungry forgive.

Ah, well if the soil of the stranger had wrapped you,

While the lords that you served and the friends that you knew

Hawk in the marts of the tyrants that trapped you,

Tout in the shops of the butchers that slew.

Why should you wake for a realm that is rotten,

Stuffed with their bribes and as dead to their debts?

Sleep and forget us, as we have forgotten;

For Flanders remembers and England forgets.

From “The Ballad of St. Barbara and other verses” by G.K. Chesterton (Cecil Palmer, London, 1922) (St. Barbara is the patron saint of artillery and of those in danger of sudden death.)

NOTE:

Captain Charles Algernon Fryatt (2 December 1872 – 27 July 1916) was a British mariner who was executed by the Germans for attempting to ram a U-boat in 1915. When his ship, the SS Brussels, was captured off the Netherlands in 1916, he was court-martialled and sentenced to death because he had attacked the submarine as a civilian non-combatant. International outrage followed his execution near Bruges, Belgium. In 1919, his body was reburied with full honours in the United Kingdom.

Captain Fryatt's ship - The S.S. Brussels

Sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD

Catherine W. Reilly.- “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 84. and 

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32167/32167-h/32167-h.htm

Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875 –1956) - British novelist; inventor of the Clerihew humorous verse form

I have included Edmund here because he was made a Chevalier of the Order of the Crown - a Belgian award - for 'valuable services in the Allied cause' during WW1 and, while he may not have written any verse during the conflict, he was an important British poet

Edmund was born in London on 10th July 1875. His parents were John Edmund Bentley, a civil servant, and his wife, Margaret Richardson Bentley, nee Clerihew. His father, John Edmund Bentley, was a civil servant and a former Rugby Union international, having played for England in the first ever international match against Scotland in 1871. 

Educated at St Paul's School, London, before going on to Merton College, Oxford University, Edmund became a journalist and worked for several newspapers, including “The Daily Telegraph”.  He also worked for the weekly magazine “The Outlook” during the editorship of James Louis Garvin. 

When he was sixteen and a pupil at St Paul's School, the lines of his first Clerihew - about Humphry Davy - dropped into Edmund's head during a science class. Together with his schoolfriends, one of whom was G.K. Chesterton, Edmund filled a notebook with examples.

In June 1902, Edmund married Violet Alice Mary Boileau in Brentford, Middlesex.  Violet's father was Neil C. Boileau, a senior officer in the British Army  By 1911, Edmund and Violet were living in Hampstead and had the following children - Neil Edmund Boileau Bentley, b. 1903, Violet Bentley b. 1904 and Nicholas Clerihew Bentley b. 1908.

According to a notice in The  London Gazette of 16th May 1919, Edmund received an award – Chevalier of the Order of the Crown - conferred by  His Majesty the King of the Belgians  in recognition of valuable services in the Allied cause  

Edmund died in 1956 in London. His son Nicholas Bentley, who preferred to spell his first name Nicolas, became an artist.

Cover of the first book
of Clerihews

Edmund's first Clerihew:

Sir Humphry Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium.[

Sources:

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBOR%2FLONDON-GAZ%2F%2F15947688

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBOR%2FED-GAZ%2F2539996

“Biography for Beginners” Edited by E. CLERIHEW, B.A. With 40 Diagrams by G. K. CHESTERTON (T. Werner Laurie, London, 1905) is available to view as a free down-load from the Gutenberg Project:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46691/46691-h/46691-h.htm

NOTES: 

The Order of the Crown

The Order of the Crown is the second highest Belgian Order of Knighthood, junior only to the Order of Leopold. H.M. King Leopold II established the Order in 1897. Receiving a Knighthood in the Order of the Crown is considered a gift of very high value in international diplomacy. This award can be compared to the modern 'Order of the Merit'...

It was awarded for important contributions to the First World War effort by way of artistic, written or scientific contributions, or important contributions to industry and trade.

Clerihew

A Clerihew has the following properties:

It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it mostly pokes fun at famous people

It has four lines of irregular length and metre for comic effect

The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme, including the use of phrases in Latin, French and other languages.

The first line contains, and may consist solely of, the subject's name. According to a letter in The Spectator in the 1960s, Bentley said that a true clerihew has to have the name "at the end of the first line", as the whole point was the skill in rhyming awkward names.

Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they target famous individuals and reposition them in an absurd, anachronistic or commonplace setting, often giving them an over-simplified and slightly garbled description.

G.K. Chesterton wrote a poem to Violet Boileau:

Gabriele D’Annunzio, Prince of Montenovoso, Duke of Galiese OMS, GMG, MVM (1863 - 1938) –Italian poet, writer, playright soldier and airman

With a fellow officer WW1

Gabriele was born in Pescara in the Italian province of Abruzzo.  His father was Francesco Paolo Rapagnetta d’Annunzio, a landowner and Mayor.  Gabriele had a volume of his poems published when  he was sixteen and still at school   Gabriele went to work as a journalist for the newspaper “Tribuna”, taking the pen-name of “Duca Minimo”.  

In 1883, Gabriele married Maria Hardouin di Gallese and they had three sons but the marriage did not last.  His first novel ,“Il Piacere (translated as The Child of Pleasure), was publsihed in 1889.  In 1897, he was elected to the Italian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei deputati) as an Independent.

A lavish life-style meant that Gabriele ran up debts and in 1910 he moved to France where he worked with Claude Debussy on a musical play.  However, when war broke out, Gabriele returned to Italy and spoke in favour of Italy entering the conflict on the side of  the Allies of the Triple Entente. His efforts were successful in 1915 when the signing of the Treaty of London brought Italy into the war on the side of the allies.

Having flown with Wilbur Wright in 1908, Gabriele learnt to fly and volunteered as a fighter pilot.  He lost the sight of one eye in a flying accident.   

In February 1918, he took part in a raid on the harbour of Bakar in the west of Croatia.  

On 9th August 1918 he was commanding the 87th Italian Fighter Squadron, nick-named “La Serenissima”, and led nine planes in a 700 mile round trip to drop propaganda leaflets on Vienna.

Gabriele d'Annunzio portrait

In 1924, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy gave him the title of Principe di Montenevoso.  

Gabriele died in 1938 at his home in Gardone Riviera, Brescia, Lombardy, and was given a state funeral.  He was buried in the garden of his home which is known as the Vittoriale degli Italiani (The Shrine to Italian Victories).

Here is one of Gabriele's poems:

NOTE;  Marshal of Italy Luigi Cadorna, OSML, OMS, OCI (4 September 1850 – 21 December 1928) was an Italian general and Marshal of Italy. He was most famous for being the Chief of Staff of the Italian Army from 1914-1917 during the First World War. Because of the multiple and consecutive failed attacks led by him, the large number of casualties incurred among his own men (outnumbering enemy casualties), plus his personal reputation as disproportionately bitter and ruthless, Cadorna is often considered one of the conflict's worst generals.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_D%27Annunzio