Ronald Bottrall
{{Short description|Cornish poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
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(Francis James) Ronald Bottrall OBE, (2 September 1906, Camborne, Cornwall – 25 June 1989) was a Cornish poet. He was praised highly by F.R. Leavis, Anthony Burgess and Martin Seymour-Smith, and deprecated by Ian Hamilton and Martin Amis.
Bottrall was educated at Redruth Grammar School and at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Career
- Lector in English, University of Helsinki, Finland, 1929–31
- Commonwealth fund fellowship, Princeton University, USA, 1931–33 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960326/ai_n14038219]
- Johore Professor of English Language and Literature, Raffles College, Singapore, 1933–37
- Assistant Director, British Institute, Florence, Italy, 1937–38
- Secretary, SOAS, 1939–45
- Air Ministry: Temporary Administrative Officer, 1940; Priority Officer, 1941
- British Council Representative: in Sweden, 1941; in Italy, 1945; in Brazil, 1954; in Greece, 1957; in Japan (and Cultural Counsellor, HM Embassy, Tokyo), 1959
- Controller of Education, British Council, 1950–54
- Chief, Fellowships and Training Branch, Food and Agriculture Organization, 1963–65.
Honours and awards
- OBE, 1949.
- Coronation Medal, 1953
- Syracuse International Poetry Prize, 1954
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 1955
- Knight of St. John, 1972
- Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, 1973
- Knight Commander, Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Malta, 1977
Personal life
He was the father of Anthony Bottrall, the diplomat, expert in developmental agriculture and politician.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/anthony-bottrall-diplomat-and-agricultural-expert-for-developing-nations-who-went-on-to-be-a-dedicated-local-councillor-10104982.html|title=Anthony Bottrall: Diplomat and agricultural expert for developing|website=Independent.co.uk |date=12 March 2015}}
Publications
=Poetry=
- The Loosening and other Poems, 1931
- Festivals of Fire, 1934
- The Turning Path, 1939
- Farewell and Welcome, 1945
- Selected Poems, 1946
- The Palisades of Fear, 1949
- Adam Unparadised, 1954
- Collected Poems, 1961
- Day and Night, 1974
- Poems 1955–73, 1974
- Reflections on the Nile, 1980
- Against a Setting Sun, 1983
=Other=
- (with Gunnar Ekelöf) T.S. Eliot: Dikter i Urval, 1942
- (with Margaret Bottrall) The Zephyr Book of English Verse, 1945
- (with Margaret Bottrall) Collected English Verse, 1946
- Rome (Art Centres of the World), 1968.
References
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
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Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Category:People educated at Redruth Grammar School
Category:20th-century English poets
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