Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke (August 3, 1887 – April 23, 1915) was an English poet best known for his idealistic War Sonnets written during the First World War.

Biography

Brooke was born at 5 Hillmorton Road in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of a Rugby schoolmaster, and was educated at Rugby School. He became a fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1913. Brooke made friends among the Bloomsbury group of writers, some of whom admired his talent, while others, both male and female, were more impressed by his good looks. The poet W. B. Yeats described him as "the handsomest young man in England". Brooke belonged to another literary group known as the Georgian Poets, and was the most important of the Dymock poets, associated with the Gloucestershire village of Dymock, where he spent some time before the war. He also lived at Grantchester.

Related Topics:
Rugby - Warwickshire - Rugby School - King's College, Cambridge - Bloomsbury group - W. B. Yeats - Georgian Poets - Dymock poets - Gloucestershire - Dymock - Grantchester

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Brooke toured the United States and Canada to write travel diaries for the Westminster Gazette and visited several islands in the South Seas. It was later revealed that he had fathered a daughter with a Tahitian woman. He was also romantically involved with the actress Cathleen Nesbitt.

Related Topics:
United States - Canada - Tahiti

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His accomplished poetry gained many enthusiasts and followers and he was taken up by Edward Marsh, who brought him to the attention of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. He entered the army as an officer, as befitted his social class, and took part in the Antwerp expedition in October 1914. He sailed with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on February 28, 1915 but developed septic pneumonia from an infected mosquito bite. He died at 4.20pm on April 23, 1915 off the island of Lemnos in the Aegean on his way to a battle at Gallipoli. As the expeditionary force had orders to depart immediately, he was buried at 11pm in an olive grove on the island of Skyros, Greece. His grave remains there today.

Related Topics:
Edward Marsh - Winston Churchill - First Lord of the Admiralty - Mediterranean Expeditionary Force - Mosquito - April 23 - 1915 - Lemnos - Aegean - Gallipoli - Skyros - Greece

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As a side-note, Rupert Brooke's brother, 2nd Lt. William Alfred Cotterill Brooke was a member of the 8th Battalion London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) and was killed in action near Le Rutoire Farm on the historic Loos battlefield on June 14, 1915, aged 24. He is buried in Fosse 7 Military Cemetery (Quality Street), Mazingarbe, Pas de Calais, France. He had only joined the battalion on May 25. http://www.1914-18.co.uk/brooke/brookes%20brother%20text.htm

Related Topics:
Post Office Rifles - Loos - June 14 - 1915 - Fosse 7 Military Cemetery - Mazingarbe - Pas de Calais - France - May 25

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