Rupert Brooke was a native of England. He was a poet who is best remembered for his sonnets, such as ‘The Soldier’, about World War I. He was described by W B Yeats as ‘the handsomest young man in England’.
Rupert Chawner Brooke was born Rugby, Warwickshire in 1887. He was educated in Rugby and later attended King’s College, Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge he travelled in Europe and studied in Germany. In 1913 he set out on a world tour. He travelled across North America and went on to tour New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Brooke returned to England just before the beginning of World War I. He served in the Royal Navy and in 1915 set sail for Gallipoli with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. During the voyage he developed septicaemia from a mosquito bite. He died aged 27 on April 23rd 1915 on board a French hospital ship in the Aegean Sea. He is buried on the Greek island of Skyros.
Rupert Brooke, soldier-poet of World War I, was born in the year 1887 On This Day.
Jubilee Gardens, Rugby – statue of Rupert Brooke
The Soldier, Rupert Brooke