Freeman, John

(1880-1929)

   Born at Dalston, Middlesex, he suffered from ill health through the effects on the heart of scarlet fever at the age of three. At thirteen he started work as a clerk in the head office of the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society and by the age of thirty-four he was chief executive of a multi-million dollar corporation. He was a critic for the New Statesman and the London Mercury. Among his earliest literary friends was Walter de la Mare (see entry). He wrote two dramas: Prince Absalom (1925) and Solomon and Balkis (1926), and several novels. He was awarded the Hawthornden prize in 1920. He died at Anerley, London, and was buried in the churchyard at Thursley, Surrey. Freeman is best known for his poems of nature, about which he was passionate. Some of his publications: Twenty Poems, 1909. Fifty Poems, 1911. Memories of Childhood, 1919. Poems New and Old, 1920. Music, 1921. The Grove, 1924. Collected Poems 1928. Last Poems, 1930. Some of his poems: "A Visit to Thomas Hardy," "English Hills," "The Grove," "The Pigeons," "The Stars in their Courses."

   Sources: 101 Patriotic Poems. Contemporary Books, 1986. Collected Poems by John Freeman. MacMillan and Co., 1928. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk).