Sir John Stanier Waller, 7th Baronet (27 July 1917 – 22 January 1995) was an English author, poet and journalist. He was one of the group of Cairo poets during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was the last of the Waller baronets of Braywick Lodge (1815).

Life

Waller was the son of Captain Stanier Waller and Alice Harris, who was a barmaid before she married; Captain Waller died of wounds from the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. John was educated at

Weymouth College Weymouth College is a further education college located in Weymouth, England. The college has over 4,000 students, studying on a wide range of practical and academic courses in many subjects. The college is part of The University of Plymouth ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

. In 1939, he founded the magazine ''Kingdom Come'', which he edited. Waller served in the Middle East from 1941 to 1946 and was initially with the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and do ...

. Then he was posted to the Ministry of Information, where his sergeant-major was the poet G. S. Fraser. During his time in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, he founded the Salamander Society with Keith Bullen and John Cromer, and launched ''Oasis: the Middle East Anthology of Poetry from the Forces'' in August 1943. After the war, Waller had a number of poetry collections published, such as ''The Merry Ghosts'', ''Crusade'' and ''The Kiss of Stars''. He edited books and was presented with the Greenwood Award for Poetry in 1947 and became a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 1948. He was also Information Officer in the Overseas Press Division of the

Central Office of Information The Central Office of Information (COI) was the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its chief executive reported to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was a non-ministerial department, and became an executive agency and a ...

. In 1954, on the death of Sir Edmund Waller, 6th Baronet, he inherited the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

. However, he lost the inherited income he could access without an heir, as business ventures failed, and he gave up writing. Waller was awarded the Keats Prize in 1974. In 1976, he helped set up the Salamander Oasis Trust. This was originally intended just to reprint ''

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Ventnor Ventnor () is a seaside resort town and civil parishes in England, civil parish established in the Victorian era on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, from Newport, Isle of Wight, Newport. It is situated south of St Boniface D ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

on 22 January 1995.

Private life

Waller lived in

Isleworth Isleworth ( ) is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hounslow, West London, England. It lies immediately east of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane, London, River Crane. Isleworth's original area of ...

, and was known both as "the sensitive man of literature", and "the hard-drinking, unashamed homosexual" who was not shy about his contacts with London underworld. He inherited a 250,000GBP trust fund from Lady Viola Waller; however, the full sum was under condition that he would produce a male heir. Circa 1962 Waller started publicly looking for a bride, and in May 1964 he announced engagement to singer Brigitte Bond in the press. The engagement was called off in June 1964, and the news of Bond being a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

(and thus unable to bear children) was made public in press. In 1974 he married Anne Eileen Mileham, and they had a daughter. The marriage ended in divorce; Lady Waller was declared bankrupt in 1990, and Sir John died without ever receiving the full inheritance and ended the baronetcy line.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waller, John 1917 births 1995 deaths Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford 20th-century English poets People educated at Weymouth College (public school)

207 Year 207 (Roman numerals, CCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Severus (or, less frequently, year 960 ''Ab urbe condita''). The deno ...

Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature British Army personnel of World War II Royal Army Service Corps soldiers