How two women saved war poems 100 years apart

Nowell Oxland died in World War One before he could see his poems published

Two women have saved a war poet's work from being lost - twice over and more than 100 years apart.

Only 24, Nowell Oxland died in World War One in 1915, nine days before one of his poems, about his native Cumbria, was published in The Times.

Though Oxland did not live to see it, his friend and mentor Amy Hawthorn, from Newcastle, sought to preserve his work by getting about 20 copies of an anthology of his poems printed for friends and family.

More than 100 years later, Cumbrian author Zoe Gilbert found what she believes may be the only surviving copy, and has republished the "evocative" and "very moving poem" in a new book about Oxland.

Ms Gilbert, who works for the National Trust and Visit England, was doing research for an exhibition on the war and poetry when she came across the poem Farewell, also known as Outward Bound, in The Times.

"I was intrigued because I thought, well, this is an absolutely fantastic poem, where's the rest of his work?" she said.

"That was really what started this journey for me."

Chasing the Phantom is Zoe Gilbert's first published book

The 53-year-old said the poem struck a chord because it described Oxland's birth place Alston Moor in east Cumbria, where she grew up.

"For me it's just so evocative in terms of place, and it's been wonderful to discover some of the sites in Alston Moor which he's referring to in his poems," she said

"The landscapes and his descriptions of what they're like were immediately recognisable for me."

The key to tracking down Oxland's lost work was Ms Hawthorn, but she "sort of vanished" after the poem was published in the newspaper, Ms Gilbert said.

"She was actually a really inspiring woman," she said.

"Her dad was in the medical profession and she did actually go to university herself - very rare for women at the time."

After moving from Newcastle to attend Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, Ms Hawthorn became a teacher.

Her sisters lived in Alston Moor so she spent her summers there, where she struck up a friendship with Oxland, despite being 15 years his senior.

Ms Gilbert said Oxland was "quite private" and only shared his work with a few people.

"His family didn't really know about it, they weren't particularly interested, so it was really Amy who kind of believed in him," she said.

Amy Hawthorn at Newnham College. She is on the second row from the back and sixth from the left

Ms Gilbert was aided in her search for copies of Ms Hawthorn's original anthology by military historian Stephen Cooper and found one in the British Library.

The pair have now published a book about Oxland, charting his life through university at Oxford, his enlistment in the Border Regiment and his death during the 1915 Gallipoli campaign.

It includes his unpublished poems, many describing Lake District and Pennine landscapes. He had never seen any of his work printed.

Mr Cooper described Farewell as "masterful" and said Oxland's promise had been cut short.

He said the title had been changed to Outward Bound when the work was published in the Times because the editor found it "too gloomy".

"It's a heart-felt longing for the landscape and home he would never return to," he said.

"We're so pleased to share his work, and his and Amy's stories, with the world."

Military historian Stephen Cooper is co-author of the book with Ms Gilbert

Oxland was friends with another local poet, Noel Hodgson, and Ms Gilbert said there was a poignant link between the two and their love of the landscape.

The last summer before the war in 1913, they spent a day climbing up Great Gable and talking late into the night.

When Hodgson found out Oxland had died, he was in France on the Western Front.

"He ceremonially burnt some moss, which his sister Stella had sent him from the top of Great Gable," Ms Gilbert said.

"There's a very moving poem that he wrote as well in memory of Nowell Oxland and it's saying how he loved his ancient hills the more because he remembers him and because they walked there together."