To a Company of Friends in Memory of 30th November 1943 -- Dedication

Sir George Rostrevor Hamilton (1888 - 1967) was an English poet and critic. He worked as a civil servant: his experience as an inspector of taxes meaning he could help out his friend Walter de la Mare. He was knighted in 1951.

He had a classical education at the University of Oxford, and later compiled anthologies of Latin and Greek verse for Nonesuch Press. He was a published war poet of World War I, known for the rather conventional and sentimental A Cross in Flanders.

His book The Tell-Tale Article on the Auden Group made an impact by the expedient of counting the proportion of definite articles in Auden's verse, remarking that it was much higher than in older styles. In general he was a steady conservative in matters of literature.

He was a director of the Poetry Book Society, and well connected as a correspondent of many literary figures; including E. R. Eddison and Owen Barfield.