Eva Dobell (1876 – 1963) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

poet, nurse, and editor, best known for her

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

on the effects of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and her regional poems.

Biography

Eva was the daughter of Wine Merchant and local historian Clarence Mason Dobell from

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, and the niece of the Victorian poet

Sydney Dobell Sydney Thompson Dobell (5 April 182422 August 1874) was an English poet and critic, and a member of the so-called Spasmodic school. Biography Dobell was born at Cranbrook, Kent. His father, John Dobell, was a wine merchant and his mother Julie ...

. She volunteered to join the

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

(VAD) as a nurse in

. Her experiences in the VAD prompted her to write poetry about, inter alia, wounded and maimed soldiers which has been well-thought of by many versed in the ways of poetry. She also took part in the morale-boosting work of writing to

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

. Her full name was Eveline Jessie Dobell and she was born the youngest of three children on 30 January 1876 at the Grove, Charlton Kings in Gloucestershire, England. She died on 3 September 1963 at the age of 87 years at which time her home address was Abbeyholme, Overton Rd, Cheltenham. She never married. Her mother was Emily Anne Duffield a native of Manchester, England.

Poetry

While she was also known in her time as a regional poet (one of her

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

poems was recently set to music), Dobell is best known today for her

occasional poems Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work ...

from the war period, which all describe wounded soldiers, their experiences, and their bleak prospects. A few of these poems are widely dispersed on the internet, and these continue to receive some scholarly acknowledgment. "''Night Duty''," for instance, is cited as one of many poems by female war-poets and nurses that provide access to an experience rarely shared by male poets such as

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by ...

and

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

. A similar comment was made by

John Oxenham John Oxenham ( "John Oxnam", died ) was the first non-Spanish European explorer to cross the Isthmus of Panama in 1575, climbing the coastal cordillera to get to the Pacific Ocean, then referred to by the Spanish as the ''Mar del Sur'' ('Southern ...

in his foreword to

Mary H. J. Henderson Mary H J Henderson (born 1874 – 6 November 1938) was an administrator with Elsie Inglis's Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in the Balkans in World War I, earning five medals. She founded social work and civic groups led by women, ...

's 1918 collection, ''In War and Peace: Songs of a Scotswoman,'' some of which are based on her experiences in Serbia, with the

Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services (SWH) was founded in 1914. It was led by Dr. Elsie Inglis and provided nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, cooks and orderlies. By the end of World War I, 14 medical units had been outfitted and ...

, namely it is a 'vision of war seen from the inside, and finding expression through the woman-poet's mind'. Perhaps the most frequently reproduced is "''Pluck''," especially on sites dedicated to the Great War. "''Pluck''" also found its way into printed anthologies such as ''The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War'', and was even set to music. After the war, she continued to write; in all, she published half a dozen books of poetry, a verse drama, and edited a book of poems by

Lady Margaret Sackville Lady Margaret Sackville (24 December 1881 – 18 April 1963) was an English poet and children's author. Born at 60 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, Sackville was the youngest child of Reginald Windsor Sackville, 7th Earl De La Warr. She was a second ...

Bibliography

Well-known poems

* "(In A Soldier's Hospital I) Pluck" * "Advent 1916" * "Night Duty" * "(In A Soldiers' Hospital II) Gramophone Tunes"

Books of poetry

*''Songs and Sonnets''. London: Elkin Mathews, 1902. *''A Bunch of Cotswold Grasses''. London: A.H. Stockwell, 1919. *''Snap-shots of Travel''. London: Erskine Macdonald, 1925. *''Youths and the Swallows and Other Verse''. London: Favil Press, 1942. *''A Gloucestershire Year''. Bradford: Jongleur Press, 1949. *''Verses New and Old''. London: Favil Press, 1959.

Verse drama

*''A Woodland Tale: A Phantasy''. London: George Allen and Sons, 1909.

Book edited

Margaret Sackville Lady Margaret Sackville (24 December 1881 – 18 April 1963) was an English poet and children's author. Born at 60 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, Sackville was the youngest child of Reginald Windsor Sackville, 7th Earl De La Warr. She was a secon ...

. ''A Poet's Return: Some Later Poems of Lady Margaret Sackville''. Cheltenham: Burrow's Press, 1940.

Anthologies

S. Fowler Wright Sydney Fowler Wright (6 January 1874 – 25 February 1965) was a British editor, poet, science fiction author, writer of screenplays, mystery fiction and works in other genres, as well as being an accountant and a conservative political activis ...

, ed. ''The County Series of Contemporary Poetry'' No. VII. Gloucester: The Empire Poetry League, 1927.Table of contents a
''The County Series of Contemporary Poetry'' No. VII
. "The Roman Camp" and "The Faery Wood." * Catherine W. Reilly, ed. '' Scars Upon My Heart: Women’s Poetry and Verse of the First World War''. London: Virago Press, 1982. *Vincent Sherry, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War''. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. . "Pluck." *

Johnny Coppin John "Johnny" Coppin (born 5 April 1946) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, poetry anthologist and broadcaster. He plays guitar and piano and has written and recorded many albums as a solo artist. He has a weekly one-hour show on BBC Ra ...

. ''The Gloucestershire Collection''. Red Sky, 1994. "Tom's Long Post," set to music.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobell, Eva 1867 births 1963 deaths 20th-century English poets English nurses British World War I poets British women in World War I People from Cheltenham Occasional poets