Julian Grenfell

Julian Grenfell was born into an aristocratic family; his parents, William and Ethel (“Ettie”) were members of the Victorian high-society group known as “the souls.” Grenfell attended Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was renowned for his athletic and sporting abilities but developed a reputation as something of a bully. Grenfell’s artistic pursuits included drawing and poetry. His early poems celebrate his love of hunting and sporting, such as the poem “To a Black Greyhound.” Grenfell also wrote a series of unpublished essays excoriating high society, and his general distaste for genteel manners may have led to his decision to join the Royal Dragoons in 1910. Grenfell was sent to India and, after the outbreak of World War I, served in France.
 
Grenfell’s courage during the war was notable: he was rewarded a Distinguished Service Order and refused a staff position in order to continue fighting. Best remembered for his war poem, “Into Battle,” Grenfell’s attitude toward war was remarkably patriotic, even idealistic; it stands in sharp contrast to other World War I poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Grenfell was seriously wounded during the Battle of Ypres and died in a hospital at Boulogne shortly thereafter. “Into Battle” was printed alongside his obituary in The Times.