Ivor Gurney 
Ivor Gurney began composing aged 14 as pupil to Dr Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral(1) meeting Herbert Howells and poet Will Harvey. Gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Music he began a lifelong friendship with Marion Scott who assisted in the publication of his books Severn & Somme(2) and Wars Embers.(3)
Unable to join Harvey’s battalion, Gurney
enlisted in the 2/5th Glosters. They met on the
morning of 16 August 1916. Later that day Lt.
Harvey went out alone on reconnaissance and
never came back. Gurney wrote to Marion: ‘…
his name is a part of autumn - and a Gloucester
autumn - to me. And the falling of leaves has
one more regret for me for ever’.(4)
But Harvey
had been captured spending the remainder of
the war as a prisoner. Wounded in the arm in April 1917 and gassed
at St. Julien in September Private Gurney was
invalided home. In hospital he fell for VAD
Nurse Annie Drummond, seeking salvation
from his troubled mind. However, Annie later
married another patient moving to the USA yet
saving the poetry book and music score Ivor
had sent her in a battered suitcase.(5).
Gurney’s erratic behaviour finally led to his
admission to a mental institution in Kent (6) where
he continued to write and compose until his
death in December 1937 leaving a total of 300
songs and 900 poems. Only then could he
return to his beloved Gloucestershire where
Herbert played piano and Will dropped a sprig
of rosemary ‘for remembrance’ into his grave.(7)
STRANGE SERVICE by Ivor Gurney
Little did I dream, England, that you bore me
Under the Cotswold Rills beside the water meadows
To do you dreadful service, here, beyond your borders
And your enfolding seas.
I was a dreamer ever, and bound to your dear service
Meditating deep, I thought on your secret beauty,
As through a child’s face one may see the clear spirit
Miraculously shining.
Your hills not only hills, but friends of mine and kindly
Your tiny knolls and orchards hidden beside the river
Muddy and strongly flowing, with shy and tiny streamlets
Safe in its bosom.
Now these are memories only, and your skies and rushy sky-pools
Fragile mirrors easily broken by moving airs;
But deep in my heart for ever goes on your daily being
And uses consecrate.
Think on me too, O Mother, who wrest my soul to serve you
In strange and fearful ways beyond your encircling waters;
None but you can know my heart, its tears and sacrifice,
None, but you, repay.
Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Ivor Gurney
Notes
1. www.ivorgurney.co.uk/biographical-outline/ - Anthony Boden (2007)
2. Gurney, Ivor, Severn & Somme, Sidgwick & Jackson, London (1917)
3. Gurney, Ivor, Wars Embers, Sidgwick & Jackson, London (1919)
4. Rawling, Eleanor M., Ivor Gurney’s Gloucestershire: Exploring Poetry & Place, The History Press (2011) page 51
5. Annie Nelson Drummond McKay (1887 - 1959), www.geneva.edu/~dksmith/gurney/contemporaries - Pamela Blevins (2000)
6. Kennedy, Kate, Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney, Princeton University Press (2021) page 295
7. Ibid - The Ivor Gurney Society - biographical outline (2007)
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