We hope you can come to our event on August 28, 2024. It was going to be at the Folk in Gloucester, but I am currently looking for a nicer venue. If anyone can help with that, let me know.
John Morrish 077 88 515387
I am currently working hard on my little booklet. I am calling it The Wanderings and Wonderings of Ivor Gurney. It will have maps (by my friend Chris Keeling) and photographs and writing, mostly by me.
Each one will cost me about £1.00 — £1.20 to print, depending on how many I produce. It would be nice to recover my costs. That way I can do more. In Cheltenham, I produce a quarterly called ‘Our Town’. I’m thinking the Gurney booklet could be the start of a Gloucester version, to be called ‘Our City’. I will be contacting the British Library to get a ISSN number. A job’s not done until the paperwork is finished, as it says on those slighty amusing posters about potty training.
The tea-party starts as 4:00pm. There will be short talks, music, poetry and you will get a map to allow you to wander around places associated with Ivor after that, from about 7:00pm. I’m hoping to make it as free as possible. Donations to offset the costs will be welcome.
Here’s some more stuff about Ivor and the event. I have failed to get it to appear across the width of the page, so get scrolling!
Ivor Gurney
Ivor Gurney was born in Gloucester on 28
August 1890, the son of a tailor and a
seamstress. As a small child he showed
himself to be a talented musician and
progressed to the Royal College of Music.
There he was hailed as a composer of great
potentIal.
He was, though, a restless spirit who took
solace from wandering through the
Cotswold Hills and Severn Vale, which he
tried to honour in music and poetry.
In 1915 he joined the Gloucestershire
Regiment to fight in the First World War.
In September 1917 he was gassed and sent
back to England.
Thereafter, he was sent around various
military hospitals, finding it impossible to
be at peace. Attempts to restart his career
fizzled out and in due course he was
shipped to the City of London Mental
Hospital in Dartford, Kent. He was never to
return to Gloucestershire.
The Birthday Party
Ivor Gurney’s legacy as a wonderful poet of
the Gloucestershire countryside and an
inspiring composer of songs and
instrumental music has been overshadowed
by his sad fate.
Some of us would like his home city to
mark his birthday every year, to honour his
achievements, celebrate the efforts of
young people in music and poetry and to
encourage those who have experienced
psychological distress and the stigma
associated with it.
We hope our modest birthday party will be
a step in that direction, bringing together
anyone, of any background, who would
like to learn more about this great lover of
Gloucester and Gloucestershire.
There will be tea and cake at 4:00 pm,
accompanied by short talks, discussion,
poetry and music. In later life, Ivor was
tormented by a fear of electricity and
wireless, and so we have decided to hold
our event in the quiet of the Folk Garden
without high technology: there will be
speech, acoustic music and candlelight.
We are creating a map for those who
would like to wander round the remaining
sites in central Gloucester after the party,
from about 7:00pm.