Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
(1863-1944), Known as 'Q'; writer, novelist and literary scholarSitter in 23 portraits
Poet, novelist, and anthologist noted for his compilation of The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (1900) and The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910). His first novel about Cornwall and the sea, Dead Man's Rock, was published in 1887. From 1887 to 1892, he worked in London for a publishers and as assistant editor of The Speaker. Some short stories that he contributed to the magazine were reprinted in book form as Noughts and Crosses (1891), the first of a dozen similar volumes. Quiller-Couch moved in 1892 to Fowey, the small Cornish port that appears in his stories as 'Troy Town'. In 1912, he was appointed King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge.
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1935
NPG x23949
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1935
NPG x23950
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1935
NPG x23951
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Mrs Gaynor Mills
14 February 2020, 11:06
Arthur's son Beville was a soldier in WW1 and was engaged to be married to the English poet May Wedderburn Cannan. Tragically, though surviving the war, Beville died shortly after the war by contracting Spanish flu. Arthur never really got over his son's death but remained close to May who he was particularly fond of. She wrote many poems outlining her feelings for Beville and the profound effect his untimely death had upon her. These were later published in 'The Tears Of War' an exquisite anthology of letters between Beville and May and poems she wrote before and after his death.