Henry Newbolt

Henry John Newbolt was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton (then in Staffordshire, but now in the West Midlands), son of the vicar of St Mary's Church, the Rev. Henry Francis Newbolt (1824–1866), and his second wife, Emily née Stubbs (1838–1921). After his father's death, the family moved to Walsall, where Henry was educated.

Newbolt attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and Caistor Grammar School, from which he gained a scholarship to Clifton College,[2] 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.

Blue plaque near Newbolt′s birthplace.

Newbolt married Margaret Edwina née Duckworth (1867–1960) of the prominent publishing family; they had two children:

• a son, Capt Arthur Francis Newbolt CMG (1893–1966) and,
• a daughter, Margaret Cecilia Newbolt (1890–1975), who in 1914 married Lt. Col. Sir Ralph Dolignon Furse KCMG DSO (1887–1973), the Head of Recruitment at HM Colonial Service from 1931 to 1948; they had four children.

Subsequently, it became apparent that behind Newbolt's prim Edwardian manner lay a far more complicated domestic life for Newbolt: a ménage à trois. His wife had a long-running lesbian affair with her cousin[3] and childhood love, Laura Isabella 'Ella' Coltman (1863–1948).[4] One of his poems, in which he refers to someone as "dearest", is entitled "To E.C." He became Coltman's lover after a couple of years of marriage, and he divided his time between the two women so there was no jealousy.

Newbolt resided at 14 Victoria Road in Kensington from 1889 to 1898.[5]

His first book was a novel, Taken from the Enemy (1892), and in 1895 he published a tragedy, Mordred; but it was the publication of his ballads, Admirals All (1897), that created his literary reputation. By far the best-known of these is "Vitaï Lampada". They were followed by other volumes of stirring verse, including The Island Race (1898), The Sailing of the Long-ships (1902), Songs of the Sea (1904) and Songs of the Fleet (1910).

In 1914, Newbolt published Aladore, a fantasy novel about a bored but dutiful knight who abruptly abandons his estate and wealth to discover his heart's desire and woo a half-fae enchantress. It is a tale filled with allegories about the nature of youth, service, individuality and tradition. It was reissued in a new edition by Newcastle Publishing Company in 1975.

"Vitaï Lampada"

Clifton College Close

Probably the best known of all Newbolt's poems, which was written in 1892 and for which he is now chiefly remembered, is "Vitaï Lampada". The title is taken from a quotation by Lucretius and means "the torch of life". It refers to how a schoolboy, a future soldier, learns selfless commitment to duty in cricket matches in the famous Close at Clifton College:

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night—

Ten to make and the match to win—

A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,

Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,

But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote

"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red,—

Red with the wreck of a square that broke;—

The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,

And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed his banks,

And England's far, and Honour a name,

But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:

"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year,

While in her place the school is set,

Every one of her sons must hear,

And none that hears it dare forget.

This they all with a joyful mind

Bear through life like a torch in flame,

And falling fling to the host behind—

"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The engagement mentioned in verse two is the Battle of Abu Klea in Sudan in January 1885 during the unsuccessful expedition to rescue General Gordon. Frederick Burnaby is the colonel referred to in the line "The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel's dead...", although it was a Gardner machine gun which jammed, and while Mahdist warriors did break into the British square, it did not collapse disastrously as the poem suggests.[6] The poem was both highly regarded and repeatedly satirised by those who experienced World War I.

At the start of the First World War, Newbolt – along with over 20 other leading British writers – was brought into the War Propaganda Bureau, which had been formed to promote Britain's interests during the war and maintain public opinion in favour of the war.

He subsequently became Controller of Telecommunications at the Foreign Office. His poems about the war include "The War Films", printed on the leader page of The Times on 14 October 1916, which seeks to temper the shock effect on cinema audiences of footage of the Battle of the Somme.[9]

Newbolt was knighted in 1915 and was appointed Companion of Honour in 1922.[10]

Newbolt was also part of the inner advisory circle of H. H. Asquith's government and would subsequently advise governments on policy in Ireland.

In 1921 he had been the author of a government Report entitled "The Teaching of English in England" which established the foundations for modern English Studies and professionalised the forms of teaching of English Literature. It established a canon, argued that English must become the linguistic and literary standard throughout the British Empire, and even proposed salary rates for lecturers. For many years it was a standard work for English teachers in teacher training Colleges.[11][12][13]

Newbolt died at his home in Campden Hill, Kensington, London, on 19 April 1938, aged 75.[14] 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.

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).[15]

• Mordred: A Tragedy – an Arthurian drama
• Admirals All (1897) – including Drake's Drum
• The Old Country (1906)
• The New June (1909)
• Aladore (1914) – a novel
• St George's Day & Other Poems (1918) – published by John Murray.
• Devotional Poets of the XVII Century (1929)
• The Naval History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents Volumes IV and V – Newbolt took over after Sir Julian Corbett died
• A Ballad of Sir Pertab Singh
• He Fell among Thieves
• Story of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (The Old 43rd & 52nd Regiments)
• A Child is Born (1931; one of Faber and Faber's Ariel Poems series, illustrated by Althea Willoughby)
• My World as in My Time (1932) – his autobiography
• A Note on the History of Submarine War[16]
• Submarine and Anti-Submarine (1919)[17]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Henry Newbolt

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Henry Newbolt

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Newbolt, Henry John". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 463.

• Works by Henry John Newbolt at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Henry Newbolt at Internet Archive
• Works by Henry Newbolt at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Henry John Newbolt at Find a Grave
• Text of the poem Mors Janua
• Great Britain. Board of Education. Committee on English in the educational system of England; Newbolt, Henry John, Sir, 1862–1938 (1921), The teaching of English in England being the Report of the Departmental committee appointed by the president of the Board of education to inquire into the position of English in the educational system of England, London H. M. Stationery off. [printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode, ltd.], retrieved 2 February 2017CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) – available online at Education in England and The Open Library