According to my extensive research, Arthur Keedwell Harvey James was born in 1875. His parents were Stephen and Sarah Harvey James. Arthur was educated at Shrewsbury School in Shropshire, leaving In 1888. Arthur became an actor, adopting the stage name Arthur Scott-Craven, and starring in 'Ivanhoe'. He wrote a number of books, poems and plays.
He was a Freemason – a member of the Drury Lane Lodge.
Arthur Married Meliora Louisa Harvey-James, née Milner, 1875-1944. – their son Basil Milner Keedwell James was born on 24th December 1904 and a daughter, Olive, was born in 1906. Arthur and Louisa separated at some point in 1912.
Within two days of the start of the First World War in August 1914, by which time he was nearly forty years old, Arthur applied for a commission in the Army. He wrote to all his friends urging them enlist. His application was rejected on health grounds, but he made his way down to the headquarters of The Artists Rifles and stood for the most part of two days in the queue that gathered at its doors, eager to enrol, before he was enlisted.
In November 1914, Arthur was commissioned into the 1st Bn. The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment). He was speedily promoted to be a Temporary Captain, commanding a company. In spite of being given a series of staff jobs he volunteered for front line service and was killed on 15th April 1917. Mentioned in Despatches, Arthur was buried in ST. PATRICK'S CEMETERY, LOOS Cemetery/memorial – Grave reference: III. A. 6. He is also remembered on the WW1 memorial in St Just Cornwall and in The Buffs (East Kent) Regiment - First World War Book Of Remembrance (WMR 40979), Canterbury, Kent, UK.
Arthur’s friend, fellow actor, Freemason, WW1 soldier poet and writer Robert Henderson-Bland (1876 – 1941) wrote a poem about his friend Arthur after his death in combat in 1917.
https://forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.com/2024/01/robert-henderson-bland-1876-1941.html
Works by Arthur Keedwell Harvey James - Arthur Scott Craven:
The Last of the English (1910) A play in four acts
The Fool's Tragedy (1913) A novel
Poetry:
Poems in Divers Keys (1904)
Joe Skinner, or, The man with the sneer (1907)
Alarums and Excursions (1910)
"ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS " BY ARTHUR SCOTT CRAVEN
In memory of the third of August MCMX (LONDON, ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET, W. MCMX)
AUTHOR'S NOTE
As the original editions of " Poems in Divers Keys "and " Joe Skinner " are now exhausted, I have made a selection here of some of those poems which appearedin the first volume. "Joe Skinner " reappears in extenso.
On a previous occasion I expressed my acknowledgments to the proprietors and editors of those papers by whose courtesy I was permitted to re-publish several of the shorter pieces. The present volume contains considerable matter now published for the first time, including " Fudge " and " Mukerji Lal," both in a light vein.
ARTHUR SCOTT CRAVEN. August, 1910.
Some of his poems:
“A Fragment”
IN Life's meridian could we hold
The sun, like Joshua of old -
To keep in check advancing night,
And change our fortune in the fight.
Or could we bid the moon abide
To suit our circumstance and tide -
Had we the power,
Or I, or you
(Who dream away this pregnant hour),
What things we'd do !
Page 31
"The Call to Arms "
Hodge Loquitur
"TAINT no sort o' use denyin'
There's a summat about dyin'
To the sound o' bugle calls,
An' the thud o' cannon balls ,
An' the whiz o' bullets flyin' ,
An' the rumble o' guns firin'
Wot's consid’rable inspirin'
Tothe man as stays behind.
Yus, it's fine an' fair excitin' ,
An' a thing I takes delight in :
Just the thought o' beggars fightin'
Makes me tingle through and through !
It's the martial instinct brewin',
An' it kinder needs subjuin' ,
So my wery best I'm doin'
All sich feelin's to subjoo.
I'm a chap o' brawn an' muscle,
An' it's 'ard to ' ave to tussle
' Gin these bulldog inclinations
When sich fever fires the blood,
But the thought o' my relations -
(In pertikler dear old mother) -
Makes me wishful fer to smother
All sich feelin's in the bud.
Still, there ain't no use denyin'
There's a summat about dyin'
To the rumble o' guns firin'
Wot's pertikler inspirin'.
Pp 33 - 34
The Eternal Now
To dream of a gilded morrow shall we sleep through the golden day,
And steep for ever our senses in wishes and hopes and fears ?
E'en as we long and repine the hour hath glided away,
And added its wailing note to the dirge of the wasted years!
P. 38
Critique:
" Mr. Craven sings with equal ease in many tones-narrative,
reflective, dialect, the light song, the serious monologue ; the poet's
interest always centering in human joys and sorrows, and his note
clear, polished and musical. ”—The Times.
Sources: Free BMD, Find my Past, various other sites:
https://timenote.info/en/Arthur-Keedwell-Harvey-James
http://www.westwardhohistory.co.uk/memories/memories-by-olive-ordish/
There is also a very brief biographical note in the WW1 anthology “For remembrance: soldier poets who have fallen in the war” (1920) by A. St. John Adcock.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/For_remembrance:_soldier_poets_who_have_fallen_in_the_war/Chapter_3#73
