Bernard Hugh Gutteridge (1916–1985) was an English poet, novelist, and playwright. He is primarily known for his war poems, considered "verse-journalism of a very high order" by

Vernon Scannell Vernon Scannell (23 January 1922 – 16 November 2007) was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport. Personal life Vernon Scannell, whose birth name was John Vernon Bain, was born i ...

Early life and education

Son of Capt. Bernard George Gutteridge, MRCS, LRCP, late

RAMC The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

, of Littlecroft,

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, and his wife Mary, daughter of William Baxter, Gutteridge was born at

, and educated at

Cranleigh Cranleigh is a village and civil parish, about southeast of Guildford in Surrey, England. It lies on a minor road east of the A281, which links Guildford with Horsham. It is in the north-west corner of the Weald, a large remnant forest, the m ...

. He worked in advertising both before and after the war (part of the time for the

J. Walter Thompson J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merge ...

agency). His 1954 novel ''The Agency Game'' is set in the advertising world.

Career

Gutteridge served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and with the 36th Division of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

under Combined Operations alongside Alun Lewis. He also served in the

Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The regim ...

and

Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot a ...

. He reached the rank of Major, and was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1945. He was a director of the brewers Arthur Guinness, Son, & Co. from 1949 to 1979.

Personal life

In 1947, Gutteridge married ''Nabila'' Farah Kérimée Halim, daughter of H.H. Prince Muhammad Said Bey Halim of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and a relative of Egypt's last king, Fuad II; they were divorced in 1971. One of their three daughters is the actress

Lucy Gutteridge Lucy Kérimée Gutteridge (born 28 November 1956) is an English retired actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt in the television miniseries '' Little Gloria... Happy at Last'' (1982), for which she received a Go ...

. Gutteridge subsequently remarried, in 1971, to Elizabeth Tegher.

Works

Gutteridge's writings include ''Traveller's Eye'' (1947), ''The Agency Game'' (1954), ''Collected Poems (1927-1955)'' (1956), ''The Clock: Poems and a Play'' (1973), and ''Old Damson-Face: Poems 1934 to 1974'' (1976). Gutteridge was also a contributor to several literary magazines, and translator from Polish of Julian Tuwim's poem for children, "Lokomotywa" (''The Locomotive'').British Children's Fiction in the Second World War, Owen Dudley Edwards, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, pp. 403-4

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutteridge, Bernard 1916 births 1985 deaths People educated at Cranleigh School Writers from Southampton 20th-century English poets