Lt. The Hon. Edward Wyndham Tennant (1 July 1897 – 22 September 1916) was an English

war poet 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 ...

, killed at the Battle of the Somme.

Early life

He was the son of Edward Tennant, who became Lord Glenconner in 1911, and

Pamela Wyndham Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Grey, Viscountess Grey of Fallodon (born Wyndham; later Pamela Tennant, Baroness Glenconner; 14 January 1871 – 18 November 1928), was an English writer. The wife of Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, and later of ...

, a writer, Lady Glenconner and later wife of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon. His younger brothers were the eccentric Stephen Tennant and

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show ''Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

, the founder of the

Gargoyle Club The Gargoyle was a private members' club on the upper floors of 69 Dean Street, Soho, London, at the corner with Meard Street. It was founded on 16 January 1925 by the aristocratic socialite David Tennant, son of the Scottish 1st Baron Gle ...

. Born at Stockton House,

Stockton, Wiltshire Stockton is a small village and civil parish in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Warminster. The parish includes the hamlet of Bapton. Location and extent The village lies south of the A36 Warminster-Salisbury roa ...

, which his father had just leased from Major-General A. G. Yeatman-Biggs,STOCKTON HOUSE, WILTSHIRE : HERITAGE STATEMENT – DOCUMENTARY SOURCES
dated 26 November 2014, at wiltshire.gov.uk Tennant was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

. At the age of seventeen he left school and joined the Grenadier Guards in the early weeks of the World War I, First World War. Tennant was known to friends and family as Bim, but the origin of this nickname is unknown. It has been suggested that he was engaged before his death to Nancy Cunard, but a reliable source, Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner, responded in a letter to a question on this point and stated that the suggestion was incorrect; and Lois Gordon, Nancy Cunard's biographer, in her extensive research, never came across any hint of such an alliance.

Death and memorial

Tennant is buried at Guillemont in France at the Guillemont Road Cemetery, close to the remains of his friend Raymond Asquith, who was killed the week before. The inscription on his gravestone reads: KILLED IN ACTION IN HIS TWENTIETH YEAR. A memorial to Tennant, sculpted by Allan G. Wyon, was erected in Salisbury Cathedral. There are two inscriptions on the memorial, one above the low-relief portrait of Tennant, and one below. The upper inscription reads: "When things were at their worst he would go up and down in the trenches cheering the men, when danger was greatest his smile was loveliest." The inscription below the portrait has the following wording:

Works

*''Verses by A Child'' (private printing, 1909) *''Worple Flit and other poems'' (printed posthumously, 1916)

References

*Pamela Glenconner, ''Edward Wyndham Tennant: a memoir by his mother Pamela Glenconner with portraits in photogravure'' (1919) * Anne Powell, ''Bim. A tribute to the honorable Edward Wyndham Tennant, Lieutenant, 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards 1897-1916'' (1990)

External links

Edward Wyndham Tennant
at Find a Grave.
Edward Wyndham Tennant – A Memoir by his mother Pamela Glenconner
at OpenLibrary.org. With a photo of E. W. Tennant on page 171. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tennant, Edward Wyndham 20th-century English poets 1897 births 1916 deaths Grenadier Guards officers Military personnel from Wiltshire British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme People educated at West Downs School People educated at Winchester College English World War I poets 20th-century English male writers English male poets Tennant family, Edward Wyndham