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Sir Henry Newbolt
Sir Henry John Newbolt was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vitaï Lampada" and "Drake's Drum".
Newbolt attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and Caistor Grammar School, from which he gained a scholarship to Clifton College, where he was head of the school (1881) and edited the school magazine. His contemporaries there included John McTaggart, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Roger Fry, William Birdwood, Francis Younghusband and Douglas Haig. Graduating from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Newbolt was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1887 and practised until 1899.
Newbolt died at his home in Campden Hill, Kensington, London, on 19 April 1938, aged 75. A blue plaque there commemorates his residency. He is buried in the churchyard of St Mary's church on an island in the lake on the Orchardleigh Estate of the Duckworth family in Somerset.
In his home town of Bilston, a public house was named after him, and a blue plaque is displayed on Barclay's bank near the street where he was born.
Early 20th century British composer Hope Squire wrote several songs based on Newbolt’s poems.
In June 2013 a campaign was launched by The Black Country Bugle to erect a statue in Newbolt's memory.
Recordings were made of Newbolt reading some of his own poems. They were on four 78rpm sides in the Columbia Records "International Educational Society" Lecture series, Lecture 92 (D40181/2).
Books by Sir Henry Newbolt
Outward Bound
Sir Henry John Newbolt, was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vitaï Lampada" and "Drake's Drum".
Vitai Lampada
LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of Vitai Lampada by Sir Henry Newbolt.'Vitai lampada' is a quotation from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe) by Lucretius and literally means 'The torch of life.' This was the Weekly Poetry pro...
Aladore
Ywain, a knight bored with his administrative duties, abandons his estate to his younger brother and goes on a pilgrimage to seek his heart's desire. Following a will-o'-the-wisp resembling a child, his quest takes him to the city of Paladore, where...
Pedlar's Song
LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of The Pedlar's Song by Sir Henry John Newbolt. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 22, 2023. ------ Sir Henry John Newbolt was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as...
Admirals All
A short collection of poems on Naval and other military themes by the English poet and military historian Sir Henry Newbolt published in1897. It includes his best known poems "Drake's Drum" "Vitaï Lampada" and "The Fighting Téméraire". - Summary by A...