Alfred Perceval Graves

Alfred Perceval Graves
Alfred Perceval Graves
Born	(1846-07-22)22 July 1846 Dublin, Ireland
Died	27 December 1931(1931-12-27) (aged 85) Harlech, Wales
Occupation	Poet, songwriter, Her Majesty's Schools Inspector

Alfred Perceval Graves (22 July 1846 – 27 December 1931), was an Anglo-Irish poet, songwriter and folklorist.

He was born in Dublin and was the son of Charles Graves, Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe, and his wife Selina, the daughter of John Cheyne (1777–1836), the Physician-General to the British Forces in Ireland. His paternal grandmother Helena was a Perceval, and the granddaughter of the Earl of Egmont. His grandfather, John Crosbie Graves, was a first cousin of 'Ireland's most celebrated surgeon', Robert James Graves.

Alfred was educated in England at Windermere College, Westmorland and Trinity College, Dublin. His first poem appeared in the Dublin University Magazine in 1863. He graduated with a Master of Arts degree. In 1869, he entered the Civil Service as clerk in the British Home Office, where he remained until he became an Inspector of Schools in 1874.

He was a contributor of prose and verse to The Spectator, The Athenaeum, John Bull, and Punch.

For a time he lived at Red Branch House on Laurieton Road, Wimbledon, London.

He took a leading part in the late 19th-century renewal of Irish literature. He was for several years president of the Irish Literary Society, and he was the author of the comic song Father O'Flynn and many other songs and ballads. In collaboration with Charles Villiers Stanford, he published Songs of Old Ireland (1882) and Irish Songs and Ballads (1893), the airs of which are taken from the Petrie manuscripts; the airs of his Irish Folk-Songs (1897) were arranged by Charles Wood with whom he also collaborated on Songs of Erin (1901).