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66-760: Robert Graves in The White Goddess identifies other legends and archetypes of paired hero-figures as the basis of the Holly/Oak King myth, including: Similar comparisons had been previously suggested by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough in Chapter XXVIII, "The Killing of the Tree Spirit" in the section "The Battle of Summer and Winter". Frazer drew parallels between the folk-customs associated with May Day or

132-730: A classical exhibition to St John's College, Oxford , but did not take his place there until after the war. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant (on probation) on 12 August. He was confirmed in his rank on 10 March 1915, and received rapid promotion, being promoted to lieutenant on 5 May 1915 and to captain on 26 October. In August 1916 an officer who disliked him spread

198-617: A daughter of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont . Educated at Trinity College Dublin , he was elected a Scholar in classics in 1832, and in 1834 graduated BA as Senior Moderator in mathematics, getting his MA in 1838. He played cricket for Trinity, and later in his life did much boating and fly-fishing. He was a founder member of the University of Dublin Choral Society , with its first meeting held in his rooms in Trinity. It

264-485: A high fever but without the official papers that would secure his release from the army, he chanced to share a taxi with a demobilisation officer also returning from Ireland, who completed his papers for him with the necessary secret codes. Immediately after the war, Graves with his wife, Nancy Nicholson had a growing family, but he was financially insecure and weakened physically and mentally: Very thin, very nervous and with about four years' loss of sleep to make up, I

330-809: A home with their three children, in Deià , Majorca. The house is now a museum. The year 1946 also saw the publication of his historical novel King Jesus . He published The White Goddess : A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth in 1948; it is a study of the nature of poetic inspiration, interpreted in terms of the classical and Celtic mythology he knew so well. He turned to science fiction with Seven Days in New Crete (1949) and in 1953 he published The Nazarene Gospel Restored with Joshua Podro . He also wrote Hercules, My Shipmate , published under that name in 1945 (but first published as The Golden Fleece in 1944). In 1955, he published The Greek Myths , which retells

396-454: A large body of Greek myths, each tale followed by extensive commentary drawn from the system of The White Goddess . His retellings are well respected; many of his unconventional interpretations and etymologies are dismissed by classicists. Graves in turn dismissed the reactions of classical scholars, arguing that they are too specialised and "prose-minded" to interpret "ancient poetic meaning," and that "the few independent thinkers ... [are]

462-607: A letter that Johnstone was: "not at all the innocent fellow I took him for, but as bad as anyone could be". Johnstone remained a subject for Graves's poems despite this. Communication between them ended when Johnstone's mother found their letters and forbade further contact with Graves. Johnstone was later arrested for attempting to seduce a Canadian soldier, which removed Graves's denial about Johnstone's infidelity, causing Graves to collapse. In 1917, Graves met Marjorie Machin, an auxiliary nurse from Kent. He admired her "direct manner and practical approach to life". Graves did not pursue

528-467: A license to use the patent which cost them £10 a year for three years. These enabled copies of the original documents to be circulated to major libraries and some copies were cut up to help produce a glossary for those involved in the translation. As secretary of the Commission, Graves provided reports to parliament as to how the commission implemented this innovative technique. His official residence

594-850: A member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1837 and subsequently held various officerships, including president from 1861 to 1866. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1880 and received the honorary degree of DCL from Oxford University in 1881. A gentleman and a scholar he was well respected as the Bishop of Limerick. He and the Catholic Bishop (O'Dwyer) were on the very best of terms. They cracked Latin jokes at each other, discussed fine points of scholarship and were unclerical enough not to take their religious differences too seriously. Bishop O'Dwyer had once joked at

660-732: A month later. Graves had eight children. With his first wife, Nancy Nicholson (1899–1977), he had Jennie (who married journalist Alexander Clifford ), David (who was killed in the Second World War), Catherine (who married nuclear scientist Clifford Dalton at Aldershot ), and Sam. With his second wife, Beryl Pritchard Hodge (1915–2003), he had William (author of the well-received memoir Wild Olives: Life on Majorca with Robert Graves ), Lucia (a translator and author whose versions of novels by Carlos Ruiz Zafón have been quite successful commercially), Juan (addressed in one of Robert Graves' most famous and critically praised poems, "To Juan at

726-435: A nurse and professional pianist, but stopped writing to her once he learned she was engaged. About his time at Somerville, he wrote: "I enjoyed my stay at Somerville. The sun shone, and the discipline was easy." In 1917, Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves feared Sassoon could face a court martial and intervened with the military authorities, persuading them that Sassoon

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792-480: A period of enforced celibacy, "which he had not enjoyed". By 1938, no longer entranced by Riding, Graves fell in love with the then-married Beryl Hodge. In 1950, after much dispute with Nicholson (whom he had not divorced yet), he married Beryl. Despite having a loving marriage with Beryl, Graves would take on a 17-year-old muse, Judith Bledsoe, in 1950. Although the relationship was described as "not overtly sexual", in 1952 Graves attacked Judith's new fiancé, getting

858-598: A post as a professor of English Literature at Cairo University , accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet Laura Riding , with whom he was having an affair. Graves later claimed that one of his pupils at the university was a young Gamal Abdel Nasser , but obviously untrue as Nasser was only eight years old at the time. He returned to London briefly, where he separated from his wife under highly emotional circumstances (and at one point Riding attempted suicide) before leaving to live with Riding in Deià , Majorca . There they continued to publish letterpress books under

924-402: A relationship of a sort, felt betrayed by Graves's new relationship and declined to go to the wedding. Graves apparently never loved Sassoon in the same way that Sassoon loved Graves. Graves's and Nicholson's marriage was strained, Graves living with " shell shock ", and having an insatiable need for sex, which Nicholson did not reciprocate. Nancy forbade any mention of the war, which added to

990-529: A relationship with Beryl Hodge, the wife of Alan Hodge , his collaborator on The Long Week-End (1940) and The Reader Over Your Shoulder (1943; republished in 1947 as The Use and Abuse of the English Language but subsequently republished several times under its original title). Graves and Beryl (they were not to marry until 1950) lived in Galmpton, Torbay until 1946, when they re-established

1056-502: A success but cost him many of his friends, notably Siegfried Sassoon. In 1934, he published his most commercially successful work, I, Claudius . Using classical sources (under the advice of classics scholar Eirlys Roberts ) he constructed a complex and compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius , a tale extended in the sequel Claudius the God (1935). I, Claudius received

1122-485: Is demonstrated in Graves's collection Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), which contains many poems celebrating their friendship. Sassoon remarked upon a "heavy sexual element" within it, an observation supported by the sentimental nature of much of the surviving correspondence between the two men. Through Sassoon, Graves became a friend of Wilfred Owen, "who often used to send me poems from France". In September 1917, Graves

1188-604: The James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1934. Later, in the 1970s, the Claudius books were turned into the very popular television series I, Claudius , with Sir Derek Jacobi shown in both Britain and United States. Another historical novel by Graves, Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of the Byzantine general Belisarius . Graves and Riding left Majorca in 1936 at the outbreak of

1254-745: The Spanish Civil War and in 1939, they moved to the United States, taking lodging in New Hope , Pennsylvania. Their volatile relationship and eventual breakup was described by Robert's nephew Richard Perceval Graves in Robert Graves: 1927–1940: the Years with Laura , and T. S. Matthews 's Jacks or Better (1977). It was also the basis for Miranda Seymour 's novel The Summer of '39 (1998). After returning to Britain, Graves began

1320-783: The First World War the name caused him difficulties. Graves received his early education at a series of six preparatory schools , including King's College School in Wimbledon , Penrallt in Wales, Hillbrow School in Rugby , Rokeby School in Wimbledon and Copthorne in Sussex, from which last in 1909 he won a scholarship to Charterhouse . There he began to write poetry, and took up boxing, in due course becoming school champion at both welter- and middleweight . He claimed that this

1386-595: The Forces in Ireland, an associate of Graves's father's cousin, Robert James Graves . Graves was the father of the poet Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931), of Arnold Felix Graves (1847–1930), the founder of (what is now) Dublin Institute of Technology , of the writer and critic Charles Larcom Graves (1856–1944), and of the diplomat Sir Robert Wyndham Graves (1858–1934) and of the writer Ida Margaret Graves Poore . He

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1452-678: The Green traditions in England that typically include a ritual battle in some form. Some adherents of Modern Paganism consider the two counterparts as dual aspects of the Horned God waging for the favour of the Goddess . Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father

1518-693: The Holly King is represented by holly and other evergreens , and personifies the dark half of the Wheel of the Year . The Holly King is also seen by some Neopagans as prehistoric forebear of the Father Christmas legend. The battle of light with dark is commonly played out in traditional folk dance and mummers plays across Britain such as Calan Mai in Wales, Mazey Day in Cornwall, and Jack in

1584-651: The Winter Solstice"), and Tomás (a writer and musician). UK government documents released in 2012 indicate that Graves turned down a CBE in 1957. In 2012, the Nobel Records were opened after 50 years, and it was revealed that Graves was among a shortlist of authors considered for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature , along with John Steinbeck (who was that year's recipient of the prize), Lawrence Durrell , Jean Anouilh and Karen Blixen . Graves

1650-446: The absurdity of the notion. Since 1916, the fear of gas obsessed me: any unusual smell, even a sudden strong scent of flowers in a garden, was enough to send me trembling. And I couldn't face the sound of heavy shelling now; the noise of a car back-firing would send me flat on my face, or running for cover. The friendship between Graves and Sassoon is documented in Graves's letters and biographies. The intensity of their early relationship

1716-495: The age of 90 years. His body was buried the next morning in the small churchyard on a hill at Deià , at the site of a shrine that had once been sacred to the White Goddess of Pelion . His second wife, Beryl Graves, died on 27 October 2003 and her body was interred in the same grave. Three of his former houses have a blue plaque on them: in Wimbledon , Brixham , and Islip . On 11 November 1985, Graves

1782-536: The age of seven, double pneumonia following measles almost took Graves's life, the first of three occasions when he was despaired of by his doctors as a result of afflictions of the lungs, the second being the result of a war wound and the third when he contracted Spanish influenza in late 1918, immediately before demobilisation . At school, Graves was enrolled as Robert von Ranke Graves, and in Germany his books are published under that name, but before and during

1848-517: The book Dear Robert, Dear Spike . Robert Graves was bisexual , having intense romantic relationships with both men and women, though the word he coined for it was "pseudo-homosexual." Graves was raised to be "prudishly innocent, as my mother had planned I should be." His mother, Amy, forbade speaking about sex, save in a "gruesome" context, and all skin "must be covered." At his days in Penrallt, he had "innocent crushes" on boys; one in particular

1914-638: The book Two Geometrical Memoirs on the General Properties of Cones of the Second Degree and on the Spherical Conics , a translation of Aperçu historique sur l'origine et le développement des méthodes en géométrie (1837) by Michel Chasles , but including many new results of his own. His version was admired by James Sylvester . Graves published over 30 mathematical papers, some of those later in life, after he had left TCD for

1980-609: The changing seasons in Scandinavian , Bavarian and Native American cultures, amongst others, in support of this theory. However the Divine King of Frazer was split into the kings of winter and summer in Graves' work. Stewart and Janet Farrar characterize the Oak King ruling the waxing year and the Holly King ruling the waning year, and apply the interpretation to Wiccan seasonal rituals. According to Joanne Pearson,

2046-484: The conflict. In 1926, he met Laura Riding , with whom he ran away in 1929 while still married to Nicholson. Prior to this, Graves, Riding and Nicholson adopted a triadic relationship they called "The Trinity." Despite the implications, Riding and Nicholson were most likely heterosexual. This triangle became the "Holy Circle" with the addition of Irish poet Geoffrey Phibbs , who himself was still married to Irish artist Norah McGuinness . This relationship revolved around

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2112-581: The experience of frontline conflict. In later years, he omitted his war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom." At the Battle of the Somme , he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die and was officially reported as having died of wounds. He gradually recovered and, apart from a brief spell back in France, spent

2178-471: The footsteps of his grandfather, Thomas Graves , (appointed Dean of Ardfert in 1785 and Dean of Connor in 1802) and his great uncle, Richard Graves . In 1860 he was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal and, from 1864 to 1866, he was the dean of Clonfert before being consecrated as Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe, a position he held for 33 years until his death in 1899. He had been elected

2244-504: The latter's death, Graves gave a presidential panegyric containing a valuable account both of Hamilton's scientific labours and of his literary attainments. Graves was very interested in Irish antiquarian subjects. He discovered the key to the ancient Irish Ogham script which appeared as inscriptions on Cromlechs and other stone monuments. He also prompted the government to publish the old Irish Brehon Laws, Early Irish Law . His suggestion

2310-979: The life of a clergyman. His post-TCD mathematical output includes, "On a Theorem Relating to the Binomial Coefficients" (1665), "On the Focal Circles of Plane and Spherical Conics" (1888), "The Focal Circles of Spherical Conics" (1889) and "On the Plane Circular Sections of the Surfaces of the Second Order" (1890) (all published in either the Proceedings or the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy). After leaving Trinity College, Graves followed in

2376-483: The poets, who try to keep civilisation alive." He published a volume of short stories, ¡Catacrok! Mostly Stories, Mostly Funny , in 1956. In 1961, he became Professor of Poetry at Oxford, a post he held until 1966. In 1967, Robert Graves published, together with Omar Ali-Shah , a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam . The translation quickly became controversial; Graves was attacked for trying to break

2442-441: The police called on him in the process. He later had three successive female muses, who came to dominate his poetry. During the early 1970s, Graves began to experience increasingly severe memory loss. By his 80th birthday in 1975, he had come to the end of his working life. He lived for another decade, in an increasingly dependent condition, and had taken a vow of silence before dying of heart failure on 7 December 1985 at

2508-554: The post of Poet Laureate . Charles Graves (bishop) Charles Graves (6 December 1812 – 17 July 1899) was an Irish mathematician, academic, and clergyman. He was Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin (1843–1862), and was president of the Royal Irish Academy (1861–1866). He served as dean of the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castle , and later as Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe . He

2574-648: The public perceived as his gullibility in falling for the Shah brothers' deception. In 1968, Graves was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry by Queen Elizabeth II . His private audience with the Queen was shown in the BBC documentary film Royal Family , which aired in 1969. From the 1960s until his death, Robert Graves frequently exchanged letters with Spike Milligan . Many of their letters to each other are collected in

2640-482: The relationship when he realised Machin had a fiancé on the Front. This began a period where Graves began to be interested in women with more masculine traits. Nancy Nicholson, his future wife, was an ardent feminist: she kept her hair short, wore trousers, and had "boyish directness and youth." Her feminism never conflicted with Graves's own ideas of female superiority. Siegfried Sassoon, who felt as if Graves and he had

2706-467: The remainder of the war in England. One of Graves's friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon , a fellow officer in his regiment. They both convalesced at Somerville College, Oxford , which was used as a hospital for officers. "How unlike you to crib my idea of going to the Ladies' College at Oxford," Sassoon wrote to him in 1917. At Somerville College, Graves met and fell in love with Marjorie,

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2772-457: The residents included Robert Bridges , John Masefield (his landlord), Edmund Blunden , Gilbert Murray and Robert Nichols . Later, the family moved to Worlds End Cottage on Collice Street , Islip , Oxfordshire. His most notable Oxford companion was T. E. Lawrence , then a Fellow of All Souls , with whom he discussed contemporary poetry and shared in the planning of elaborate pranks. By this time, he had become an atheist . His work

2838-629: The rubric of the Seizin Press , founded and edited the literary journal, Epilogue and wrote two successful academic books together: A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) and A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928); both had great influence on modern literary criticism, particularly New Criticism . In 1927, Graves published Lawrence and the Arabs , a commercially successful biography of T. E. Lawrence . The autobiographical Good-Bye to All That (1929, revised by him and republished in 1957) proved

2904-622: The rumour that he was the brother of a captured German spy who had assumed the name " Karl Graves ". The problem resurfaced in a minor way in the Second World War , when a suspicious rural policeman blocked his appointment to the Special Constabulary . He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier , in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about

2970-442: The size of Graves' family of nine and Graves retorted with the text about the blessedness of the man who has his quiver full of arrows, to which O'Dwyer replied "The ancient Jewish Quiver only held six." In 1841 Graves published an original mathematical work and he embodied further discoveries in his lectures and in papers read before and published by the Royal Irish Academy . He was a colleague of Sir William Rowan Hamilton and on

3036-474: The spell of famed passages in Edward FitzGerald 's Victorian translation, and L. P. Elwell-Sutton , an orientalist at Edinburgh University , maintained that the manuscript used by Ali-Shah and Graves, which Ali-Shah and his brother Idries Shah claimed had been in their family for 800 years, was a forgery. The translation was a critical disaster and Graves's reputation suffered severely due to what

3102-414: The very day of my demobilization never to be under anyone's orders for the rest of my life. Somehow I must live by writing. In October 1919, he took up his place at the University of Oxford , soon changing course to English Language and Literature , though managing to retain his Classics exhibition . In consideration of his health, he was permitted to live a little outside Oxford , on Boars Hill , where

3168-412: The worship and reverence of Riding. Graves and Phibbs were both to sleep with Riding. When Phibbs attempted to leave the relationship, Graves was sent to track him down, even threatening to kill Phibbs if he did not return to the circle. When Phibbs resisted, Riding threw herself out of a window, Graves following suit to reach her. Graves's commitment to Riding was so strong that he entered, on her word,

3234-650: Was Alfred Perceval Graves , a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival ; they were both Celticists and students of Irish mythology . Robert Graves produced more than 140 works in his lifetime. His poems, his translations and innovative analysis of the Greek myths , his memoir of his early life—including his role in World War I — Good-Bye to All That (1929), and his speculative study of poetic inspiration The White Goddess have never been out of print. He

3300-432: Was "The Palace" at Limerick, but from the 1850s he took the lease of "Parknasilla House", County Kerry , as a summer residence. In 1892 he bought out the lease of the house and a further 114 acres (0.46 km ) of land that included a few islands. In 1894 he sold it to Great Southern Hotels , who still own it to this day. On 15 September 1840, Charles Graves married Selina, daughter of John Cheyne , Physician-General to

3366-648: Was a boy named Ronny, who "climbed trees, killed pigeons with a catapult and broke all the school rules while never seeming to get caught." At Charterhouse, an all-boys school, it was common for boys to develop "amorous but seldom erotic" relationships, which the headmaster mostly ignored. Graves described boxing with a friend, Raymond Rodakowski, as having a "a lot of sex feeling". And although Graves admitted to loving Raymond, he dismissed it as "more comradely than amorous." In his fourth year at Charterhouse, Graves met "Dick" (George "Peter" Harcourt Johnstone) with whom he developed "an even stronger relationship". Johnstone

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3432-579: Was adopted and he was appointed as secretary of the Brehon Law Commission set up to accomplish this. Appointing Eugene O'Curry and John O'Donovan as translators, the Commission created facsimile copies of the original document using the process of anastatic lithography which had been showcased by Samuel Cowell at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The commission produced twenty facsimile copies which they produced in-house under

3498-475: Was also a renowned short story writer, with stories such as "The Tenement" still being popular today. He earned his living from writing, particularly popular historical novels such as I, Claudius ; King Jesus ; The Golden Fleece ; and Count Belisarius . He also was a prominent translator of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek texts; his versions of The Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular for their clarity and entertaining style. Graves

3564-474: Was among sixteen Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey 's Poets' Corner . The inscription on the stone was taken from Wilfred Owen 's "Preface" to his poems and reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." Of the 16 poets, Graves was the only one still living at the time of the commemoration ceremony, though he would die less than

3630-459: Was an object of adoration in Graves's early poems. Graves's feelings for Johnstone were exploited by bullies, who led Graves to believe that Johnstone was seen kissing the choir-master. Graves, jealous, demanded the choir-master's resignation. During the First World War, Johnstone remained a "solace" to Graves. Despite Graves's own "pure and innocent" view of Johnstone, Graves's cousin Gerald wrote in

3696-470: Was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God . Graves's eldest half-brother, Philip Perceval Graves , achieved success as a journalist and his younger brother, Charles Patrick Graves , was a writer and journalist. Graves was born into a middle-class family in Wimbledon , then part of Surrey , now part of south London. He was the eighth of ten children born to Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931), who

3762-460: Was clearly in love with Peter (disguised by the name "Dick" in Good-Bye to All That ), he denied that their relationship was ever sexual. He was warned about Peter's proclivities by other contemporaries. Among the masters his chief influence was George Mallory , who introduced him to contemporary literature and took him mountaineering in the holidays. In his final year at Charterhouse, he won

3828-476: Was experiencing shell shock and that they should treat him accordingly. Sassoon was sent to Craiglockhart , a military hospital in Edinburgh, where he was treated by W. H. R. Rivers and met fellow patient Wilfred Owen . Graves was treated here as well. Graves also had shell shock, or neurasthenia as it was then called, but he was never hospitalised for it, I thought of going back to France, but realized

3894-560: Was in response to persecution because of the German element in his name, his outspokenness, his scholarly and moral seriousness, and his poverty relative to the other boys. He also sang in the choir, meeting there an aristocratic boy three years younger, G. H. "Peter" Johnstone , with whom he began an intense romantic friendship, the scandal of which led ultimately to an interview with the headmaster. However, Graves himself called it "chaste and sentimental" and "proto-homosexual," and though he

3960-421: Was intended that he should join the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot under his uncle, Major-General James William Graves (1774–1845), and in preparation he had become an expert swordsman and rider. Charles Graves was appointed a fellow of Trinity College in 1836, and in 1843 became Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics , a position he held until 1862, when he became a senior fellow. In 1841, he published

4026-402: Was part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics . While still an undergraduate he established a grocers shop on the outskirts of Oxford but the business soon failed. He also failed his BA degree but was exceptionally permitted to take in 1925 a Bachelor of Letters by dissertation instead, allowing him to pursue a teaching career. In 1926, he took up

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4092-408: Was rejected because, even though he had written several historical novels, he was still primarily seen as a poet, and committee member Henry Olsson was reluctant to award any Anglo-Saxon poet the prize before the death of Ezra Pound , believing that other writers did not match his talent. UK government documents released in 2023 reveal that in 1967 Graves was considered for, but then passed over for,

4158-454: Was seconded for duty with a garrison battalion. Graves's army career ended dramatically with an incident which could have led to a charge of desertion . Having been posted to Limerick in late 1918, he "woke up with a sudden chill, which I recognized as the first symptoms of Spanish influenza ." "I decided to make a run for it," he wrote, "I should at least have my influenza in an English, and not an Irish, hospital." Arriving at Waterloo with

4224-479: Was the brother of both the jurist and mathematician John Graves , and the writer and clergyman Robert Perceval Graves . Born at 12 Fitzwilliam Square , Dublin, the son of John Crosbie Graves (1776–1835), Chief Police Magistrate for Dublin, by his wife Helena Perceval, the daughter and co-heiress of the Revd Charles Perceval (1751–1795) of Bruhenny, County Cork . Helena enjoyed the patronage of John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale , who married her second cousin,

4290-461: Was the sixth child and second son of Charles Graves , Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe . His father was an Irish school inspector, Gaelic scholar and the author of the popular song "Father O'Flynn", and his mother was his father's second wife, Amalie Elisabeth Sophie von Ranke (1857–1951), grandniece of the historian Leopold von Ranke . His uncle was the admiral commanding the Nore during World War I , Sir Richard Poore, 4th Baronet . At

4356-416: Was waiting until I got well enough to go to Oxford on the Government educational grant. I knew that it would be years before I could face anything but a quiet country life. My disabilities were many: I could not use a telephone, I felt sick every time I travelled by train, and to see more than two new people in a single day prevented me from sleeping. I felt ashamed of myself as a drag on Nancy, but had sworn on

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