Stephen Gwynn
Stephen Gwynn | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Galway Borough | |
In office 3 November 1906 – 14 December 1918 | |
Preceded by | Charles Ramsay Devlin |
Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | 13 February 1864 First World War |
Awards | Legion of Honour (1915) |
Stephen Lucius Gwynn (13 February 1864 – 11 June 1950) was an
Family background
Stephen Gwynn was born in
Early years
Stephen Gwynn spent his early childhood in rural County Donegal, which was to shape his later view of Ireland. He went to Brasenose College, Oxford, where, as scholar, in 1884 he was awarded first-class honours in classical moderations and in 1886 literae humaniores. During term holidays he returned to Dublin, where he met several of the political and literary figures of the day.
Professional life
After graduating Gwynn spent ten years from 1886 tutoring as a schoolmaster, for a time in France, which created a lifelong interest in French culture, as expressed in his Praise of France (1927). By 1896 he had developed an interest in writing, becoming a writer and journalist in London focused on English themes, until he came into contact with the emerging Irish literary revival, when he served as secretary of the Irish Literary Society.
This was the beginning of a long and prolific career as a writer covering a wide range of literary genres, from poetry and biographical subjects to general historical works. The eighteenth century was his particular specialism. He wrote numerous books on travel and on the topography of his own homeland, as well as on his other interests: wine, eighteenth-century painting and fishing.
Gwynn returned to Ireland in 1904 when he entered politics. In a
Great War
On the outbreak of
He was one of five Irish Nationalist MPs who enlisted and served in the army, the others being
In 1916 he was appointed to the Dardanelles Commission.
Recalled to Ireland in late 1917 to participate in the
Latter years
Stephen Gwynn formed the
Gwynn's personal life also became complicated at this stage and around 1920, he had a romantic association with married artist Grace Henry who was perhaps the best known female artist in Ireland at the time. During this period Gwynn and Grace went travelling in France and Italy and at various stages in his life Henry painted portraits of Gwynn including a very distinguished looking Gwynn in his late 60s or early 70s. Their relationship contributed significantly to the separation of Henry from her artist husband Paul Henry in 1930.
During the 1920s, Gwynn also devoted himself to writing, covering political events as Irish correspondent to 'Two in a Valley'—a handsome quarto—is the sketch-book of a successfully 'atmospheric' artist in black and white. Mr. Gwynn's accompanying letterpress, setting down the impressions of a comparative stranger in the Coln Valley, is slight, and sometimes, quite irrelevantly, he follows a red herring—or more precisely a trout! But even when most discursive he is good company... He brings both freshness and penetration of observation to the Cotswold scene, where as much as anywhere on our island, the works of Nature and man are one.[3]
Stephen Gwynn was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the National University of Ireland in 1940, and a Litt.D. by the University of Dublin in 1945. The Irish Academy of Letters awarded him the Gregory Medal in April 1950. In his literary writings he stood for a humanism and tolerance, which qualities, due to political upheavals, were relatively rare in the Ireland of his day. He died on 11 June 1950 at his home in Terenure, Dublin and was buried at Tallaght cemetery, south County Dublin.
Family
Stephen Gwynn married his cousin Mary Louisa (d. 1941), daughter of Revd. James Gwynn. She later converted to
Stephen Gwynn's brother Edward John (1868–1941) became provost of Trinity College and another brother Robin (Robert Malcolm) became its senior dean. His sister Lucy Gwynn was the first woman registrar of Trinity. A third brother, Charles, had a successful career in the British Army and retired as a Major General. Younger brothers Lucius and Jack were noted cricketers.
Photographs
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Stephen Gwynn as a baby, with his parents John and Lucy Gwynn, 1864
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Stephen and his brother Edward as boys, c.1874
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Stephen Gwynn as MP, c. 1906
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Stephen Gwynn with his family, 1906
Works
- Memorials of an Eighteenth Century Painter (James Northcote) (1898)
- Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim (1899)
- Tennyson(1899)
- The decay of Sensibility (1900)
- The Old Knowledge (1901)
- The Queen's Chronicler (1901) (collection of poems)
- Today and Tomorrow in Ireland (1903)
- Henry Grattan and his Times (1904; reissued 1971)
- The Masters of English Literature (1904)
- Thomas Moore (1905)
- The fair hills of Ireland (1906; second edition 1914)
- A Holiday in Connemara (1909)
- Robert Emmet: a historical romance (1909)
- The case for Home Rule (1911) (introduction by John Redmond)
- Beautiful Ireland: Pictured by Alexander Williams; described by Stephen Gwynn (1911)
- Battle Songs for the Irish Brigade (1915), (collected, with Tom Kettle)
- "A memoir of the author" in Mabel Dearmer, Letters from a field hospital. With a memoir of the author by Stephen Gwynn. (1915)
- For Second Reading: Attempts to Please (1918)
- John Redmond's last years (1919)
- The Irish Situation (1921)
- History of Ireland (1923)
- Collected poems (1923)
- Ireland (1924)
- Experiences of a Literary Man (autobiography) (1926)
- In Praise of France (1927)
- The Scholar's Treasury: a Book of Irish Poetry (1927)
- The Charm of Ireland (1927)
- Captain Scott (1929)
- The Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring Rice (1929)
- Ulster, Munster, Leinster (1930)
- Burgundy; with chapters on the Jura and Savoy (1930)
- The Life of Mary Kingsley (1930; reissued 1932), for which Gwynn was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
- Sir Walter Scott (1930)
- The Life of Horace Walpole (1932)
- The life and friendship of Dean Swift(1933)
- The Charm of Ireland (revised edition) (1934)
- Oliver Goldsmith (1935)
- Ireland in Ten Days (1935)
- Irish Literature and Drama in the English Language (1936)
- The Happy Fisherman (1936),
- From River to River (1937)
- Two in a Valley (1938)
- Dublin Old and New (1938)
- Robert Louis Stevenson (1939)
- Salute to Valour (1941)
- Aftermath (1946)
- Memories of Enjoyment (1946)
References
- ^ Newmann, Kate. "Stephen Lucius Gwynn (1864 - 1950): Writer and politician". The Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- ^ Fergusson, James (5 June 1995). "OBITUARY:Roy Beddington". The Independent. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- The Manchester Guardian. p. 7.
Biographical sources
- Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. – via Wikisource. . . Dublin:
- Biography in The long Gestation, Irish Nationalist life 1891–1918 P. Maume (1999), pp. 229–230
- A Dictionary of Irish History since 1800, D. J. Hickey & J. E. Doherty, Gill & MacMillan (1980)
- A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd ed. Henry Boylan (1998)
- Oxford Directory of Biographies (2004), vol.24
- Spiritually Hyphenated: Stephen Gwynn and his Family Background, Roger Gwynn, Acre Press (2019)