A. E. Housman

Alfred Edward Housman, poet, has a memorial panel in the window above Chaucer's monument in Poets' Corner Westminster Abbey. This was unveiled on 17th September 1996 by Enoch Powell and the address was given by Alan Bennett. The other poets and writers who have memorials in the window designed by Graham Jones are Robert Herrick, Alexander Pope, Oscar Wilde, Christopher Marlowe, Frances Burney and Elizabeth Gaskell. The inscription reads:

1859 A.E.Housman 1936

He was born on 26th March 1859 near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, a son of Edward and his wife Sarah Jane (Williams). He attended Oxford university and then became a clerk but wrote many learned papers. In 1892 he was professor of Latin at London University and later at Cambridge. His most famous work A Shropshire Lad was not well received at first but later became very popular. He declined the Order of Merit and other honours and died on 30th April 1936. His ashes are buried in St Laurence's church, Ludlow, Shropshire.

A photo of the window can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.

Further reading

For Alfred, his brother Laurence and sister Clemence:

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004

See the website of The Housman Society