Edward Tennant (poet)
{{short description|British war poet, killed in World War I}}
{{Other people|Edward Tennant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Edward Wyndham Tennant (For remembrance, soldier poets who have fallen in the war, Adcock, 1920 pg 91).jpg
| imagesize = 220px
| caption = Portrait drawing of Tennant by John Singer Sargent (1915)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1 July 1897
| birth_place = Stockton House, Stockton, Wiltshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1916|9|22|1897|7|1}}
| death_place = Somme, France
| death_cause = Killed in action
| mother = Pamela Wyndham
| father = Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner
| relatives = {{Plainlist|
- Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith (paternal aunt)
- David Tennant (brother)
- Stephen Tennant (brother)
- Emma Tennant (niece)
- Stella Tennant (grand-niece)
}}
| module = {{Infobox military person |embed=yes
|branch = British Army
|serviceyears = 1914–1916
|rank = Lieutenant
|unit = Grenadier Guards
|battles = World War I
}}
| honorific_suffix =
| honorific_prefix = Lieutenant
The Honourable
| name = Edward Tennant
| resting_place = Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont, Somme, France
| education = Winchester College
| known_for = War poetry
}}
Lieutenant Edward Wyndham Tennant (1 July 1897 – 22 September 1916) was a British war poet{{Cite web |title=EDWARD WYNDHAM TENNANT.* Ltnr GLENCONNER'S memoir of her son, with » 11 Oct 1919 » The Spectator Archive |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/11th-october-1919/19/edward-wyndham-tennant-ltnr-glenconners-memoir-of- |access-date=2023-11-03 |website=The Spectator Archive}} killed during the Battle of the Somme.
Early life
He was the son of Edward Tennant, who became Lord Glenconner in 1911, and Pamela Wyndham, a writer, and later wife of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon. His younger brothers were the eccentric Stephen Tennant and David Tennant, the founder of the Gargoyle Club.
Born at Stockton House, Stockton, Wiltshire, which his father had just leased from Major-General A. G. Yeatman-Biggs,[http://unidoc.wiltshire.gov.uk/UniDoc/Document/File/MTYvMDgxMjkvTEJDLDc4MzU0Mg== STOCKTON HOUSE, WILTSHIRE : HERITAGE STATEMENT – DOCUMENTARY SOURCES] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823205137/http://unidoc.wiltshire.gov.uk/UniDoc/Document/File/MTYvMDgxMjkvTEJDLDc4MzU0Mg== |date=23 August 2021 }} dated 26 November 2014, at wiltshire.gov.uk Tennant was educated at Winchester College. At the age of seventeen he left school and joined the Grenadier Guards in the early weeks of the World War I.
Tennant was known to friends and family as 'Bim', but the origin of this nickname is unknown. It has been suggested that he was engaged before his death to Nancy Cunard, but a reliable source, Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner, responded in a letter to a question on this point and stated that the suggestion was incorrect; Lois Gordon, Nancy Cunard's biographer, in her extensive research, never came across any hint of such an alliance either.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}
Death and memorial
Tennant is buried at Guillemont in France in the Guillemont Road Cemetery,{{CWGC|id=534742|name=Tennant, The Hon. Edward Wyndham|access-date=26 January 2018}} close to the remains of his friend and relative Raymond Asquith (eldest son of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith), who was killed the week before. The inscription on his gravestone reads: KILLED IN ACTION IN HIS TWENTIETH YEAR.
A memorial to Tennant, sculpted by Allan G. Wyon, was erected in Salisbury Cathedral. There are two inscriptions on the memorial, one above the low-relief portrait of Tennant, and one below.
File:Edward Wyndham Tennant Salisbury Cathedral.jpg]]
The upper inscription reads: "When things were at their worst he would go up and down in the trenches cheering the men, when danger was greatest his smile was loveliest."{{cite web|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/24033|title=E W Tennant|work=War Memorials Register|publisher=Imperial War Museums|access-date=26 January 2018}}
The inscription below the portrait has the following wording:
{{quote|In proud and unfading memory of
EDWARD WYNDHAM TENNANT
4th Batt. Grenadier Guards, eldest son of Lord and Lady
Glenconner, who passed to the fuller life in the battle of
the Somme 22nd September 1916 Aged 19 years.
He gave his earthly life to such matter as he set great
store by: the honour of his country and his home.}}
Works
- Verses by A Child (private printing, 1909)
- Worple Flit and other poems (printed posthumously, 1916)
References
- Pamela Glenconner, Edward Wyndham Tennant: a memoir by his mother Pamela Glenconner with portraits in photogravure (1919)
- Anne Powell, Bim. A tribute to the honorable Edward Wyndham Tennant, Lieutenant, 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards 1897-1916 (1990)
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{wikisource author}}
- [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12251516/_ Edward Wyndham Tennant] at Find a Grave.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927220143/http://www.openlibrary.org/details/edwardwyndhamten00glenuoft Edward Wyndham Tennant – A Memoir by his mother Pamela Glenconner] at OpenLibrary.org. With a photo of E. W. Tennant on page 171.
- {{Librivox author |id=12785}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennant, Edward Wyndham}}
Category:20th-century English poets
Category:Grenadier Guards officers
Category:Military personnel from Wiltshire
Category:British Army personnel of World War I
Category:British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme
Category:People educated at West Downs School
Category:People educated at Winchester College
Category:English World War I poets