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Ivor Gurney
was born in Gloucester and educated at the King's School as
a chorister of the Cathedral and pupil of its organist, then
at the Royal College of Music. There he demonstrated prodigious
talent as a composer, despite being troubled by the mental
instability that was to haunt him throughout his life. Rejected
by the army in 1914 because of poor eyesight, he managed to
enlist in 1915 and crossed to France in May 1916 with the
2nd/5th Gloucester Reserve Battalion. He was wounded in April
1917 but returned to duty as a machine-gunner on the Arras
front. By then his reputation as a poet and composer was increasing
with the publication of his anthology Severn and Somme and
the public performance of some of his song settings.
Gurney
was sent back to Britain for treatment after being exposed
to gas near Passchendaele in September 1917. He suffered a
nervous breakdown and was discharged from the army in October
1918 with 'deferred shell-shock'. Following a period of immense
creativity, his mental instability overwhelmed him. In 1922
his family committed him, first to Barnwood House Asylum in
Gloucester, and later to the City of London Mental Hospital
in Dartford, Kent. He remained there for fifteen years until
his death from tuberculosis.
Ivor Gurney
Society
Reading by P J Kavanagh
17 November
Members only, for information
Tel: 01797 820541
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