John Edward Masefield (1878–1967) was born in Ledbury, Herefordshire. After his mother’s death in 1885 and his father’s consequent mental health struggle and death in 1891, Masefield spent his early years with an uncle and aunt in the Herefordshire countryside. He attended Warwick School, before training as an officer in the merchant marine. While seafaring life was rough, he took delight in ships and would retain a lifelong infatuation for maritime endeavours and the sea, as expressed in his most famous poem ‘Sea-Fever’ published in 1902. Throughout the 1890s, Masefield joined voyages to the southern hemisphere, experiences he would draw on in his later narrative poems. He was no stranger to adventure, and in 1895, he jumped ship in New York to travel rough in the United States.

On his return to London, he began to write seriously while working as a clerk. Due to the popularity of his first collection of verse Salt-Water Ballads (1902) and an introduction to W.B. Yeats, he became a full-time writer and entered the literary world. In the following decades, Masefield continued writing and publishing verse collections, narrative poems, and drama. He also wrote adventure novels and children’s books, including The Midnight Folk (1927) and The Box of Delights (1935).

In 1903, he married Constance de la Cherois Crommelin (1866-1960), with whom he founded and organised the ‘Oxford Recitations’, a competition which encouraged the ‘beautiful speaking of poetry’ and ran from 1923-1929. Their daughter Judith competed in the ‘Recitations’ and wrote poetry of her own, while their son Lewis was a talented musician. The Masefield family lived in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, retaining connections with Oxford and its community.

Masefield was regarded a traditional English poet, relying on conventional forms and metres. In 1930, King George V appointed him as Poet Laureate although he declined a knighthood more than once. By the 1950s, his poems were taught in schools and he had received honorary degrees from universities including Oxford, Yale, and Harvard. He held the Laureate role humbly and diligently until his death in 1967. His ashes were interred in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Further details are given in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.