Sir Henry Newbolt

Sir Henry Newbolt (born June 6, 1862, Bilston, Staffordshire, Eng.—died April 19, 1938, London) was an English poet, best-known for his patriotic and nautical verse.

Newbolt was educated at Clifton Theological College and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was admitted to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1887 and practiced law until 1899. The appearance of his ballads, Admirals All (1897), which included the stirring “Drake’s Drum,” created his literary reputation. These were followed by other volumes collected in Poems: New and Old (1912; rev. ed. 1919). During World War I he was comptroller of wireless and cables and was later commissioned to complete Great Britain’s official naval history of the war. He also edited various anthologies of verse, which reveal his catholic and progressive taste in poetry. He was knighted in 1915 and appointed a Companion of Honour in 1922.