Keith Brebner Bullen (died 30 July 1946) was a British poet and teacher who was part of the Salamander group in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life and schools

Bullen was the son of W A Bullen who had emigrated to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in 1891, and was born and brought up in Cape Town. In the 1920s he was a member of the teaching staff at The English School, in Cairo. At the school he met, and married in 1928, Wanda Tomlinson the daughter of Robert George Tomlinson, Director of Salt's Brewery in

Burton on Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 7 ...

. They returned to England to set up a preparatory school at Malvern. Bullen, though a brilliant English scholar was no businessman and the school failed in 1934. He returned to Cairo to work for the

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 lang ...

. They were appointed by the council to run the Gezira Preparatory School, a British Council School in a Cairo suburb. The school was attended by

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...

Poetry

During his time in Cairo Bullen ran an "open house" on Sunday mornings which became a centre for poets and art lovers. These informal meetings were welcome to all regardless of nationality, colour or creed, and in 1941 came to the attention of members of the allied forces in Cairo. Bullen co-founded the Salamander Society of poets and writers, along with John Waller and John Cromer Braun, an intelligence officer. The society rescued the work of the Cairo poets when they had been posted all over the Middle East and published it in Salamander: A Miscellany of Poetry. The 5,000-copy edition sold out in six weeks. Bullen also wrote and published his own poetry including translations from French poets.

Mrs Bullen's schools

Bullen died in 1946, but his widow founded her own school, Manor House School, in

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

, Cairo. This was in a flourishing condition and had just opened a new branch in Mohandeseen, Cairo, when sequestered by the Egyptian authorities at the time of the

Suez crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

. Mrs Bullen and her daughter Anne moved to

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

where they reopened the school. However, after the outbreak of trouble in the

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

they had to leave. In 1976 at the request of the Egyptian government, Mrs Bullen, now aged 72, and her daughter reopened the Manor House School in Heliopolis, Cairo. A year later in 1977, the Mohandeseen branch was opened, and the school had 600 pupils.Manor House Schools website
Mrs Bullen died in 1979.

Publications

*Salamander:A Miscellany of Poetry *We stand alone... and other war sonnets *Bells on the Breeze and other poems *Charles Baudelaire:Un Poete Maudit *Albert Samain: Un Pastelliste Exquis *Alfred de Musset:Souvenir and other poems *Paul Verlaine:Un Poete Saturnien

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullen, Keith 1946 deaths British poets Schoolteachers from Worcestershire Year of birth missing British male poets