Julian Orde (31 December 1917 – 1974) was a female English poet, writer and actor.

Family background

Orde was the eldest child of war artist

Cuthbert Orde Captain Cuthbert Julian Orde (18 December 1888 – 19 December 1968) was an artist and First World War pilot. He is best known for his war art, especially his portraits of Allied Battle of Britain pilots. Family background Orde was born on 18 D ...

and Lady Eileen Wellesley, daughter of the 4th Duke of Wellington. The name Julian had been common in the Orde family for generations, for boys and girls.

Life and work

In the 1940s, she was the girlfriend of poet WS Graham. She played Bessie in a 1946 TV version of Aimee Stuart’s ''Jeannie'' (not to be confused with the 1941 movie version), and co-wrote the 1948 British movie thriller ''The Small Voice''. She had poems included in

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Althoug ...

's 1948 anthology ''The New British Poets'', in whose biographical notes - as well as claiming to be a couple of years younger - she says she 'was on the stage for six years, but now writes for films and radio'. Her 1946 poem ''The Changing Wind'' was included in the 1968 Penguin anthology ''Poetry of the Forties''. She married Ralph Abercrombie in London in 1949. She published poetry afterwards under name Julian Orde Abercrombie. In 1963 she wrote an episode of ATV’s ''Drama '63'' series entitled ''The Lady And The Clerk''.

Death and legacy

Her death, in 1974 aged 56, moved fellow poet

David Wright David Allen Wright (born December 20, 1982) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who spent his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Mets. Chosen by the Mets in the 2001 Major League Baseball dr ...

to compose ''On A Friend Dying''. Her work continues to be read and republished. In 1988 her poem ''Conjurors'' was republished in its own pamphlet. ''The Florist'' was included in the 1995 anthology ''The Supernatural Index''. ''Conjurors'' was again republished in the 2010 anthology ''A Field of Large Desires''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orde, Julian 1917 births 1974 deaths English television actresses English women poets English film actresses 20th-century English actresses 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English poets