George Rostrevor Hamilton

Who was George Rostrevor Hamilton?

Sir George Rostrevor Hamilton was an English poet and critic. He worked as a civil servant and Special Commissioner. He was knighted in 1951.

He had a classical education at the University of Oxford, and later compiled anthologies of Latin and Greek verse for Nonesuch Press. He was a published war poet of World War I, known for A Cross in Flanders.

His book The Tell-Tale Article on the Auden Group made an impact by the expedient of counting the proportion of definite articles in Auden's verse, remarking that it was much higher than in older styles. In general he was a steady conservative in matters of literature.

He was a director of the Poetry Book Society, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature, and well connected as a correspondent of many literary and philosophical figures; including Walter de la Mare, Wilfrid Meynell, Roy Fuller, Henri Bergson, E. R. Eddison and Owen Barfield.