Biography

Born 23 December 1895 at Ridley Hall in Northumberland. She was the youngest daughter of the Honourable Francis Bowes Lyon. and was a first cousin of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...

.

During the First World War, Lilian Bowes Lyon helped at Glamis Castle (owned by her uncle) which became a convalescence home for soldiers. Her brother Charles Bowes Lyon was killed in the war on 23 October 1914, inspiring her poem “Battlefield” which was later published in “Bright Feather Fading”.

After the First World War, Lilian Bowes Lyon studied for a time at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 and then moved to London. She was independently wealthy. In 1929, she met the writer William Plomer

William Plomer

William Charles Franklyn Plomer CBE was a South African author, known as a novelist, poet and literary editor. He was educated mostly in the United Kingdom...

 CBE and through him, Laurens van der Post

Laurens van der Post

Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, CBE was a 20th century Afrikaner author of many books, farmer, war hero, political adviser to British heads of government, close friend of Prince Charles, godfather of Prince William, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and...

. She published two novels, “The Buried Stream” (1929) and “Under the Spreading Tree” (1931) but thereafter focused on poetry. Lilian Bowes Lyon published six individual collections with Jonathan Cape and a “Collected Poems” in 1948. Her “Collected Poems” contains an introduction by C. Day-Lewis

Cecil Day-Lewis

Cecil Day-Lewis CBE was an Irish poet and the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake...

 who noted noted the influences of Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...

, Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...

 and Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...

. Her verse appeared in many periodicals and anthologies including “The Adelphi”, “Country Life”, “Kingdom Come”, “The Listener”, “The London Mercury, “The Lyric” (USA), “The Observer”, “Orion”, “Punch”, “The Spectator”, “Time and Tide and “Poetry” (USA).

During the Second World War, Lilian Bowes Lyon moved to the East End where she used the Tilbury Docks unofficial air raid shelter and assisted with nursing the injured. She also had several amputations due to thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's Disease), losing toes, a foot, her lower legs and eventually both her legs below her hips. She returned to her home in Kensington and continued to write poetry despite the thromboangitis obliterans beginning to affect her hands. These poems, found amongst William Plomer’s papers at University of Durham, were published in “Uncollected Poems” by Tragara Press.

She died on 25 July 1949.

Works

• The Buried Stream (Jonathan Cape, 1929) novel
• Under the Spreading Tree (Jonathan Cape, 1931) novel as D J Cotman
• The White Hare (Jonathan Cape, 1934) poems
• Bright Feather Fading (Jonathan Cape, 1936) poems
• Tomorrow is a Revealing (Jonathan Cape, 1941) poems
• Evening in Stepney (Jonathan Cape, 1943) poems
• A Rough Walk Home (Jonathan Cape, 1946) poems
• Collected Poems (Jonathan Cape, 1948)
• Uncollected Poems (Tragara Press, 1981)

External links

• Here is a link to a webpage in memory of Lilian Bowes-Lyon, featuring two of her poems.