F. W. Harvey

Frederick William Harvey (March 26 1888 – February 13 1957) was an English poet, known for poems composed in prisoner-of-war camps at Krefeld and Gütersloh that were sent back to England, during World War I.

He was born in Hartpury, Gloucestershire. He was educated at the King's School, Gloucester, where he formed a close friendship with Ivor Gurney, and then at Rossall School. Gurney and Herbert Howells, another local composer, would set a number of his poems to music.

He started on a legal career, which would always be somewhat tentative. He became a Roman Catholic convert in 1914, and shortly after joined the Gloucestershire Regiment as a private soldier, as World War I broke out.

Serving in France, he was awarded the D. C. M. in 1915, and returned to England for officer training. He was captured behind the German lines in 1916, where he began to write more seriously.

He returned home in 1919, and married in 1921. He did not enjoy any sustained success as a writer, and never fully settled.

Works

*"A Gloucestershire Lad At Home and Abroad" (1916)
*"Gloucestershire Friends" (1917)
*"Ducks" (1919)
*"Comrades in Captivity: a record of life in seven German prison camps" (1920) (war memoirs)
*"Farewell" (1921)
*"September and Other Poems" (1925)
*"In Pillowell Woods" (1926)
*"Forest Offering"
*"Gloucestershire" (1947)

References

*"The Laureate of Gloucestershire: The Life and Work of F. W. Harvey 1888 - 1957" (1988) Frances Townsend'
*"F. W. Harvey: Soldier, Poet" (1988) Anthony Boden

External links

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* [http://www.sassoonery.demon.co.uk/harvey.htm Biography]