The Poetry of E.W. Hornung

By E. W. Hornung

Ernest William Hornung was born in Middlesbrough, England on 7th June 1866, the third son and youngest of eight children.

Although spending most of his life in England and France he spent two years in Australia from 1884 and that experience was to colour and influence much of his written works.

His most famous character A. J. Raffles, ‘the gentleman thief’, was published first in Cassell's Magazine during 1898 and was to make him famous across the world as the new century dawned.

Hornung also wrote several stage plays and was a gifted poet.

Spending time with the troops in WWI he published Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front during 1919, a detailed account of his time there. This was especially close to his heart as his son, and only child, was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres on 6th July 1915.

Ernest William Hornung died in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the south of France on 22nd March 1921.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Jun 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781787800281

Book preview

The Poetry of E.W. Hornung

Ernest William Hornung was born in Middlesbrough England on 7th June 1866, the third son and youngest of eight children.

Although spending most of his life in England and France he spent two years in Australia from 1884 and that experience was to colour and influence much of his written works.

His most famous character A. J. Raffles, ‘the gentleman thief’, was published first in Cassell's Magazine during 1898 and was to make him famous across the world as the new century dawned. It is on this character that this volume is based. Hornung was also wrote a stage play about Raffles as was a gifted poet.

Spending time with the troops he published Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front during 1919, a detailed account of his time there. This was especially close to his heart as his son and only child only child was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres on 6 July 1915.

Ernest William Hornung died in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the south of France on 22 March 1921.

Index of Contents

Consecration

Lord’s Leave

Last Post

The Old Boys

Ruddy Young Ginger

The Ballad Of Ensign Joy

Bond And Free

Shell-Shock In Arras

The Big Thing

Forerunners

Uppingham Song

Wooden Crosses

The Ballad of Ensign Joy

E.W. Hornung – A Concise Bibliography

Consecration

Children we deemed you all the days

        We vexed you with our care:

But in a Universe ablaze,

        What was your childish share?

To rush upon the flames of Hell,

        To quench them with your blood!

To be of England’s flower that fell

        Ere yet it brake the bud!

And we who wither where we grew,

        And never shed but tears,

As children now would follow you

        Through the remaining years;

Tread in the steps we thought to guide,

        As firmly as you trod;

And keep the name you glorified

        Clean before man and God.

Lord’s Leave

(1915)

No Lord’s this year: no silken lawn on which

        A dignified and dainty throng meanders.

The Schools take guard upon a fierier pitch