Rupert Brooke Statue in Rugby
Anne Langley
Plaque for mother of Rupert Brooke
Anne Langley
Birthplace of Rupert Brooke
Anne Langley
Rupert Brooke’s father William was a teacher at Rugby School who ran his home, 5 Hillmorton Road, as a boarding house for boys from the school. This is where Rupert was born in 1887; he attended Rugby School and did well there. He went on to King’s College Cambridge, living for a time at the Vicarage in Grantchester. He became a fellow of King’s and then volunteered to fight in the First World War. His war poems were patriotic and have become enduringly popular. He died of septicaemia in 1915, en route to Gallipoli, and is buried on the Greek island of Skyros.
Commemorated in Rugby
A plaque marks the poet’s birthplace in Hillmorton Road. There is also an information board and an inspiring statue of Rupert Brooke in the little triangular park by Regent Place.
Comments
Hi Anne,
Thank you for this, I am a fan of Rupert Brooke’s poetry and did not realise that the famous statue of him, that I have seen in lots of books and on websites about him, was actually in Rugby itself. So I will have to make a visit there. I recently read a letter of his, written just before the war, where he describes a car drive made with his mother around the places of his childhood:
“It has a hedgy, warm boutiful dimpled air. Baby fields run up and down the little hills, and all the roads wiggle with pleasure . . . In Warwickshire there are butterflies all the year round and full moon every night . . . and every man can sing John Peel. Shakespear and I are Warwickshire yokels. What a county!”
It is a gushing letter, but I could not help wondering how thoughts of his childhood, and the countryside here, influenced the scenes evoked in his most famous poem ‘The Soldier’.
He doesn’t look too happy about the state of his statue!
There’s also a little cafe named after him, on one of the side streets near the statue. It was rather lovely when I went a few years ago!
I was taking a photo of Dennis Gabor’s house on the A426 near the gyratory in Rugby (Nobel Laureate – watch this space) when I noticed a plaque on the house next door (see photo above). Rupert Brooke’s mother Mary lived here from 1910-1916; he stayed with her often and completed his five sonnets called ‘1914’ here. (And I will get round to photographing his birthplace eventually!)
I have at last got around to taking a photo of Brooke House in Hillmorton Road where Rupert Brooke was born (now added above). There’s a nice bronze plaque above the front door saying ‘In this house was born RUPERT BROOKE A.D. 1887’ and an oval blue plaque on the side of the house with similar wording.
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