Henry Newbolt

Sir Henry John Newbolt
Henry Newbolt: etching by William Strang, 1898
Born	(1862-06-06)6 June 1862 Bilston, Staffordshire, England
Died	19 April 1938(1938-04-19) (aged 75) Kensington, London, England
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	British
Notable works	"Vitaï Lampada" "Drake's Drum"

Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a very powerful role as a government adviser, particularly on Irish issues and with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vitaï Lampada" and "Drake's Drum".

Henry John Newbolt was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton (then located in Staffordshire, but now in the West Midlands), son of the vicar of St Mary's Church, the Rev. Henry Francis Newbolt (1824–1866), and his second wife, Emily née Stubbs (1838–1921). After his father's death, the family moved to Walsall, where Henry was educated.

Newbolt attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and Caistor Grammar School, from where he gained a scholarship to Clifton College, where he was head of the school (1881) and edited the school magazine. His contemporaries there included John McTaggart, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Roger Fry, William Birdwood, Francis Younghusband and Douglas Haig. Graduating from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Newbolt was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1887 and practised until 1899.

Newbolt married Margaret Edwina née Duckworth (1867–1960) of the prominent publishing family; they had two children:

Subsequently it became apparent that behind the prim Edwardian exterior lay a far more complicated domestic life for Newbolt: a ménage à trois. His wife had a long-running lesbian affair with her cousin and childhood love, Laura Isabella 'Ella' Coltman (1863–1948). One of his poems, in which he refers to someone as "dearest", is entitled "To E.C." He became Coltman's lover after a couple of years of marriage, and according to Chitty he divided his time between the two women so there was no jealousy.