John Drinkwater was born in
Leytonstone,
Essex (now
Greater London), to actor/author Albert Edwin Drinkwater (1851–1923) and Annie Beck (
née Brown), and worked as an insurance clerk. In the period immediately before the
First World War, he was one of the
group of poets associated with the
Gloucestershire village of
Dymock, along with
Rupert Brooke,
Lascelles Abercrombie,
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson and others. and
Oliver Cromwell. In 1927, the
George H. Doran Company published Drinkwater's book
Oliver Cromwell: A Character Study. He had published poetry since
The Death of Leander in 1906; the first volume of his
Collected Poems was published in 1923. He did also compile anthologies and wrote literary criticism (e.g.
Swinburne: an estimate (1913)), and later became manager of
Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He married concert violinist
Daisy Kennedy, the ex-wife of
Benno Moiseiwitsch, in December 1924. Their daughter, Penny Drinkwater, went on to become a wine writer and member of the circle of wine writers. John Drinkwater made recordings in
Columbia Records' International Educational Society Lecture series. They include Lecture 10 – a lecture on
The Speaking of Verse (four 78 rpm sides, Cat no. D 40018-40019), and Lecture 70
John Drinkwater reading his own poems (four 78 rpm sides, Cat no. D 40140-40141). == Death and commemoration ==