author
R. E. (Robert Ernest) Vernède
1875–1917
Remembered as a war poet, this English writer balanced a career in fiction and verse with active service in the First World War. His life was cut short in 1917, giving his poems an added sense of immediacy and loss.
1 Audiobook
The Fair Dominion: A Record of Canadian Impressions
by R. E. (Robert Ernest) Vernède
About the author
Born in London in 1875, Robert Ernest Vernède was educated at St Paul's School and St John's College, Oxford. After university he wrote novels and short stories, and he moved in literary circles that included school friends such as G. K. Chesterton and E. C. Bentley.
Today he is best known for his war poetry. Although older than many new recruits, he served as an officer in the Rifle Brigade during the First World War, was wounded at the Somme in 1916, returned to the front, and was killed on April 9, 1917.
His reputation now rests largely on the poems gathered in War Poems, and Other Verses, published in 1917. They stand out for their thoughtful, restrained tone and for the way they bring together literary craft and the lived experience of war.