(Francis James) Ronald Bottrall (2 September 1906,

Camborne Camborne ( kw, Kammbronn) is a town in Cornwall, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,845. The northern edge of the parish includes a section of the South West Coast Path, Hell's Mouth and Deadman's Cove. Camborne was former ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

– 25 June 1989) was a Cornish poet. He was praised highly by

F.R. Leavis Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis (14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York. Leavis ra ...

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...

and

Martin Seymour-Smith Martin Roger Seymour-Smith (24 April 1928 – 1 July 1998) was a British poet, literary critic, and biographer. Biography Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Highgate School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was editor of '' Isi ...

, and deprecated by Ian Hamilton and

Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ' ...

. Bottrall was educated at

Redruth Grammar School Redruth Grammar School in Redruth, Cornwall, was a boys school between 1907 and 1976. History The school was opened on 5 October 1907 by General Sir Redvers Buller. It was originally built to accommodate 150 pupils and to serve the Camborne-Redr ...

and at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

Career

* Lector in English, University of

Helsingfors Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city' ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

, 1929–31 *

Commonwealth fund fellowship The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several coun ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, USA, 1931–3

* Johore Professor of English Language and Literature, Raffles College,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, 1933–37 * Assistant Director, British Institute,

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico a ...

, 1937–38 * Secretary,

SOAS SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

, 1939–45 * Air Ministry: Temporary Administrative Officer, 1940; Priority Officer, 1941 *

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

Representative: in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, 1941; in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, 1945; in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, 1954; in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, 1957; in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

(and Cultural Counsellor, HM Embassy, Tokyo), 1959 * Controller of Education, British Council, 1950–54 * Chief, Fellowships and Training Branch,

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

, 1963–65.

Honours and awards

* OBE, 1949. * Coronation Medal, 1953 * Syracuse International Poetry Prize, 1954 * Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

, 1955 * Knight of St. John, 1972 * Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, 1973 * Knight Commander, Order of St. John of Jerusalem,

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, 1977

Personal life

He was the father of

Anthony Bottrall Anthony Bottrall (15 May 1938 – 16 December 2014) was a British diplomat, expert in developmental agriculture and a Liberal Democrat, Lambeth London Borough Council, Stockwell ward politician. He stood against incumbent Labour MP Kate Hoey ...

, the diplomat, expert in developmental agriculture and politician.

Publications

Poetry

* The Loosening and other Poems, 1931 * Festivals of Fire, 1934 * The Turning Path, 1939 * Farewell and Welcome, 1945 * Selected Poems, 1946 * The Palisades of Fear, 1949 * Adam Unparadised, 1954 * Collected Poems, 1961 * Day and Night, 1974 * Poems 1955–73, 1974 * Reflections on the Nile, 1980 * Against a Setting Sun, 1983

Other

* (with Gunnar Ekelöf) T.S. Eliot: Dikter i Urval, 1942 * (with Margaret Bottrall) The Zephyr Book of English Verse, 1945 * (with Margaret Bottrall) Collected English Verse, 1946 * Rome (Art Centres of the World), 1968.

References

1906 births 1989 deaths Harkness Fellows Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People educated at Redruth Grammar School 20th-century English poets People from Camborne Poets from Cornwall {{Cornwall-stub