author
Geoffrey Dearmer
1893–1996
A First World War soldier-poet who lived to 103, he wrote with unusual clarity about battle, loss, and the long afterlife of memory. His work later gained renewed attention as readers rediscovered one of the last surviving voices of that generation.
1 Audiobook
Poems
by Geoffrey Dearmer
About the author
Born in London in 1893, he was the son of Percy Dearmer, the Anglican liturgist and hymn writer, and Mabel Dearmer, an artist and writer. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and went on to become known as a British poet whose early reputation grew from verse shaped by his wartime experience.
During the First World War, he served with the London Regiment at Gallipoli and later on the Western Front. Those experiences informed many of his best-known poems, which reflect the brutality of war without losing a steady, humane voice.
After the war, he worked in public and cultural life as well as continuing to write. Sources connected with Westminster School note later roles including work at the BBC, where he was associated with Children's Hour, and he remained active long enough to see his poetry rediscovered late in life. He died in 1996 at the age of 103.