Gordon Bottomley

Gordon Bottomley (20 February 1874 – 25 August 1948) was an English poet, known particularly for his verse dramas. He was partly disabled by tubercular illness. His main influences were the later Victorian Romantic poets, the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris.

Background

Bottomley was born in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire on 20 February 1874, the only child of Maria and Alfred Bottomley. He was educated firstly at home by his mother and then at the local grammar school. Aged seven, Bottomley contracted a tubercular illness that would affect him for the rest of his life. As a result, he was invalided for long periods of time and was unable to travel widely or live in a town.

Bottomley became a junior clerk at the Craven Bank in Keighley at the age of 16. However, after an illness in 1891, he was transferred to the Bradford branch. Here he first visited the theatre and saw the Oscar Wilde play Lady Windermere's Fan. This stimulated his interest in plays.

Following another bout of illness in 1892 Bottomley left the bank and moved to Cartmel, Lancashire to live a life of passionate intense meditation and contemplation and began writing poetry. It was here in 1895 that he met Emily Burton. They married in 1905. The couple lived from 1914 in Silverdale, near Carnforth until their deaths. In the 1920s he was president of the Village Drama Society. In 1944 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Leeds. Bottomley died in 1948, outliving his wife by less than a year. Their ashes are interred at St. Fillan's Chapel at the base of Dundurn, Perthshire.