23 Facts About Rupert Brooke

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier".

Rupert Brooke was known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W B Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England".

Rupert Brooke was the third of four children of William Parker "Willie" Brooke, a schoolmaster, and Ruth Mary Brooke, nee Cotterill, a school matron.

William Parker Brooke had to resign after the couple wed as there was no accommodation there for married masters.

The couple then moved to Rugby in Warwickshire where Rupert Brooke's father became Master of School Field House at Rugby School a month later.

Rupert Brooke's eldest brother was Richard England "Dick" Brooke, his sister Edith Marjorie Brooke was born in 1885 and died the following year, and his youngest brother was William Alfred Cotterill "Podge" Brooke.

Rupert Brooke attended preparatory school locally at Hillbrow, and then went on to Rugby School.

Rupert Brooke planned to put his studies on hold to help his parents cope with the loss of his brother, but they insisted he return to university.

Rupert Brooke made friends among the Bloomsbury group of writers, some of whom admired his talent while others were more impressed by his good looks.

Rupert Brooke belonged to another literary group known as the Georgian Poets and was one of the most important of the Dymock poets, associated with the Gloucestershire village of Dymock where he spent some time before the war.

Rupert Brooke lived at the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, which stimulated one of his best-known poems, named after the house, written with homesickness while in Berlin in 1912.

Rupert Brooke had his first heterosexual relationship with Elisabeth van Rysselberghe, daughter of painter Theo van Rysselberghe.

Rupert Brooke took the long way home, sailing across the Pacific and staying some months in the South Seas.

Rupert Brooke was romantically involved with the artist Phyllis Gardner and the actress Cathleen Nesbitt, and was once engaged to Noel Olivier, whom he met, when she was aged 15, at the progressive Bedales School.

Rupert Brooke enlisted at the outbreak of war in August 1914.

Rupert Brooke's accomplished poetry gained many enthusiasts and followers, and he was taken up by Edward Marsh, who brought him to the attention of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty.

Rupert Brooke was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a temporary sub-lieutenant shortly after his 27th birthday and took part in the Royal Naval Division's Antwerp expedition in October 1914.

Rupert Brooke sailed with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on 28 February 1915 but developed a severe gastroenteritis whilst stationed in Egypt followed by streptococcal sepsis from an infected mosquito bite.

Rupert Brooke's grave remains there still, with a monument erected by his friend Stanley Casson, poet and archaeologist, who, in 1921, published Rupert Brooke and Skyros, a "quiet essay", illustrated with woodcuts by Phyllis Gardner.

Rupert Brooke had been in France on active service for nineteen days before meeting his death.

Rupert Brooke's body was buried in Fosse 7 Military Cemetery, Mazingarbe.

On 11 November 1985, Rupert Brooke was among 16 First World War poets commemorated on a slate monument unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

American adventurer Richard Halliburton made preparations for writing a biography of Rupert Brooke, meeting his mother and others who had known the poet, and corresponding widely and collecting copious notes, but he died before writing the manuscript.