Reminding us that the horrors of war extend far beyond the battlefield, Wilfrid Gibson’s poem ‘Katherine Veitch’ tells of a mother driven to madness by the loss of her son at the battle of Loos in 1915. Gibson, one of the first poets to write about World War 1, had previously described soldiers with shell-shock; … Continue reading A Poem for Armistice Day 2025: Katherine Veitch by Wilfrid Gibson
2024. When British poet and aphorist Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne described herself in ‘Who’s Who’ as a suffragist, socialist and freethinker, she was actively constructing a public identity not just as a writer, but as an activist. But identities can’t be so neatly categorised and controlled. Paper given at the Womens’ History Network annual conference.
This lesser-known war poem by Wilfrid Gibson was written shortly after the birth of his first child, Audrey, on May 31, 1916. It remains all too relevant today One-Day-Old Baby asleep on my arm, Would that my heart could enfold you, Cherish you, shelter you, hold you Ever from harm. Born in a season of … Continue reading For Armistice Day 2023: poem by Wilfrid Gibson
2023. British poet Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne contributed to the ferment of new ideas about art, religion, poetry and politics in the early twentieth century. She was a suffragist, socialist and freethinker as well as a poet, and her social networks included artists, feminists, reformers and revolutionaries.
2023. Biographical article about Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online in July 2023.
This small selection of poems by Elizabeth Gibson (later Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne) is taken from her 1910 collection, From the Wilderness. That self-published book, with its plainer style and more overtly political themes, marks a shift in form and content from most of her previous poetry. My selection gives an insight into her personal stance … Continue reading From the Wilderness: a selection of poems by Elizabeth Gibson
2022 (1981) Tom Keell Wolfe, the son of anarchists Lilian Wolfe and Tom Keell, talks about his parents, life in the anarchist colony Whiteway, war resistance, and friendships with Emma Goldman, Sylvia Pankhurst, George Orwell and others, in this 1981 interview.
2022 (1980/1981). Unpublished interview notes with activist Kitty Lamb (1901 – 1992) about her life and the development of her anarchist beliefs. They give an insight into some of the shifting social and political groupings, campaigns and alliances of the twentieth century as well as her lifelong commitment to a better world.
Here are four poems for Armistice Day, by Wilfrid Gibson. Best known for his poems of the First World War, he continued to write about war and its aftermath until the Second World War. For more of his war poems, see Suspense and War Poems Bacchanal (November, 1918) Into the twilight of Trafalgar Square They … Continue reading Wilfrid Gibson poems for Armistice Day, November 2018
This weekend sees the final days of an installation, Dazzle at London’s V&A, centred around Wilfrid Gibson’s war poem Suspense. The installation is one of a series inspired by the use of ‘dazzle’ camouflage used to reduce the risks of submarine attacks on shipping in World War One. Suspense draws on Gibson’s own experience of … Continue reading Wilfrid Gibson Dazzles at the V&A with his poem ‘Suspense’