Teresa Mary Hooley (1888–1973) was an English poet, known in later life as Mrs. F. H. Butler. She is known mostly for her

war poem A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...

''A War Film'', about

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 ...

Biography

She was born in

Risley, Derbyshire Risley is a small village and parish in Erewash in the English county of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 711. It is just over four miles south of Ilkeston. Sandiacre is adjacent to the east. It is almost ...

, and (accordingly to a letter from her sold at auction recently) she lived at Goldenbrook Farm in Risley at some point during her life. Teresa Mary Hooley's early life was spent at Risley Lodge, the home of her father Terah Hooley (died 1927), a successful lace manufacturer who built Springfield Mill at

Sandiacre Sandiacre is a town and civil parish in the borough of Erewash in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England adjoining the border with Nottinghamshire. The population of the town was 8,889 at the 2011 Census. The name Sandiacre is usuall ...

, and her mother Mary (died 1928), his second wife. She made her name before the Great War, writing poems in the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' alongside

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

– not an admirer of her work. During the war, she presumably had an interest in

Spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...

, since her poem "Christ of the Night" appeared in the ''

Occult Review ''The Occult Review'' was a British illustrated monthly magazine published between 1905 and 1951 containing articles and correspondence by many notable occultists and authors of the day, including Aleister Crowley, Meredith Starr, Walter Leslie ...

'' in December 1915, on p. 342. Her work was published in a number of collections in the 1920s and 1930s but has largely fallen out of fashion. One of her poems, "The Owl" (Sova) was published in a 1939 Czech language compilation of animal poetry. She had two full brothers who survived childhood. Of these the younger, Basil Terah Hooley, born in 1893, was decorated in the Great War but died in the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. Her much older half-brother was the financier

Ernest Terah Hooley Ernest Terah Hooley (5 February 1859 – 11 February 1947) was an English financial fraudster. He achieved wealth and fame by buying promising companies and reselling them to the public at inflated prices, but a prosecution exposed his deceitful ...

of Risley Hall with whom she maintained a civil if frosty relationship. Hooley married Frank H. Butler in May 1920 at Risley Church. They had a son but the marriage did not survive. In later life some found her a formidable presence.

''A War Film''

Hooley's poem ''A War Film'' describes the experience of seeing documentary footage of

, and refers to the

Retreat from Mons The Great Retreat (), also known as the retreat from Mons, was the long withdrawal to the River Marne in August and September 1914 by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French Fifth Army. The Franco-British forces on the Western Fr ...

, after one of the great battles of the

Great War 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 ...

. Although this is Hooley's most well known poem little is known about it, and its date has been debated in online fora. It has been assumed the poem was inspired by watching documentary footage about

. The earliest documentary was ''The Battle of the Somme'' (1916), but it is unlikely that a contemporary writer would confuse the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

and the

. It is therefore reasonable to conjecture that the 1926 film, ''Mons'', was the most probable source. The fact that the poem can be found in ''Songs of all Seasons'' (published 1927) could be seen to bear this hypothesis out.

Works

*''Gloom and Gleam'' (1913, A.C. Fifield) *''How to Survive'' (1920, Cape) *''Twenty-Nine Lyrics'' (1924, Cape) *''Collected Poems'' (1926, Cape) *''Songs of all Seasons'' (1927, Cape) *''Songs of the Open: Collected Poems'' (1928) *''Eve and other Poems'' (1930, Cape) *''New Poems'' (1933) *''Orchestra'' (1935) *''Sova (The Owl), Píseň o Němé Tváři'' (1939, Otto Babler) *''The Singing Heart'' (1945, Frederick Muller Ltd.) Hardback, 87pp
(poems mostly on the subject of World War II) *''Selected Poems'' (1947, Cape) *''Wintergreen'' (1959, A J Chapple) 32pp other collections of poems (publication dates unknown): *''A Country Year''

Basil Terah Hooley

Basil Terah Hooley (1892–1918)

was born in Risley, Derby, on 8 June 1892. He was commissioned in April 1915, later promoted to Lieutenant and to Major. On 23 June 1915 he married Emily Dorothy Thirlby of Risley, at All Saints church, Risley. A member of the University College Nottingham OTC, Major Hooley served with the 7th Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment), and was a tank commander in the Battles of Amiens on 18 August 1918. Basil Hooley died at the age of twenty-six of pneumonia following influenza, while home on leave on 28 October 1918 . He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for conspicuous gallantry in November 1918. A memorial window to Major Basil Terah Hooley M.C., was placed in the north aisle of All Saints Church in Risley.Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1928, London, 1928, p.385

References

External links

Battle of the Somme'' (1916) at IMDB

(1926) at IMDB

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooley, Teresa 1888 births People from Risley, Derbyshire 1973 deaths English women poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English women writers