Richard Church (poet) Facts for Kids

Richard Church (William Shackleton)

Richard Thomas Church (born March 26, 1893 – died March 4, 1972) was an English writer, poet, and critic. He wrote many different kinds of books, including novels and plays written in verse (like poems). He also wrote three books about his own life, called autobiographies. He was honored with the CBE award for his contributions.

Early Life and First Steps
Writing Career
A Special Experience
Family Life
Later Years and Passing
Selected Works

Early Life and First Steps

Richard Church was born on March 26, 1893, in Battersea, a part of south-east London. He went to school at Dulwich Hamlet School in Dulwich. His father, Thomas John Church, worked for the Post Office, and his mother, Lavina Annie Orton Church, was a schoolteacher. Sadly, his mother was often sick and passed away in 1910 when Richard was only seventeen.

After finishing school at sixteen, Richard started working as a clerk in the Customs and Excise department of the Civil Service. This was a government job. In his first autobiography, he shared stories about his strong father, his smart mother, and his clever older brother. He also wrote about the challenges his family faced.

His very first book of poems, called The Flood of Life, was published in 1917 when he was 24. Even after this, he continued to work in the Civil Service until 1933. At the age of 40, he left his government job to become a full-time writer.

Writing Career

Richard Church became a well-known journalist and reviewer. He wrote a lot about nature and life in the countryside. His first poems appeared in a newspaper called Clarion. He continued to write poetry for various magazines and newspapers throughout his life.

He also worked as a literary editor for the New Leader newspaper. In the 1930s, he was in charge of the Oxford Festival of Spoken Poetry. One of his most famous poems, "Mud," which was about World War I, was first published in 1935.

Richard Church's first autobiography, Over the Bridge (published in 1955), won an award called the Sunday Times Prize for Literature. Another writer, Howard Spring, said it was "the loveliest autobiography written in our time." He also noted that Richard Church found life "full of enchantment" and that its challenges were part of that magic. His second autobiography, The Golden Sovereign, came out in 1957. That same year, Queen Elizabeth II made him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

A Special Experience

When he was young, Richard Church had a very unusual experience while staying at a place where people went to get better after being sick. He wrote about it in his autobiography, Over the Bridge.

He was looking out a window and saw a gardener chopping down a dead tree. After a while, he noticed something strange: the sight of the axe hitting the tree and the sound of it hitting were not happening at the same time. The sound was delayed! At first, he didn't trust what he was seeing and hearing. But after focusing, he realized that it seemed like the rules of physics were not working correctly.

This made him realize something important that stayed with him forever: "time and space are not absolute." This meant they weren't fixed rules. He felt an amazing sense of freedom from this discovery. He felt free because if time and space could trick him, they weren't strict laws.

Soon after, another amazing feeling came over him. He felt as if his body was lighter than it seemed. He thought he could make himself float off the ground just by wanting to. And then, he actually did! He floated "about the room" a little bit above the floor. He came back down, only to float up again.

Family Life

Richard Church was married three times. His first marriage was to Caroline Parfett in 1915, and they had three daughters. He married his second wife, Catherina Schimmer, in 1930, and they had a son. Catherina passed away in 1965. In 1967, he married his third wife, Dorothy Beale.

He really loved the countryside in Kent, England. This love for nature is shown in many of his writings. He even put together a collection of works about Kent.

Later Years and Passing

Richard and Dorothy first lived in a place called The Old Stable. Later, they moved to The Priest's House at Sissinghurst Castle in Cranbrook. Richard Church passed away suddenly there on March 4, 1972, at the age of 78.