Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

A new feature celebrating the lives of poets and their writing through the eyes of family.

John Gerow Jolly 1920 - 2004

My Dad, John ‘Jack’ Jolly was born in Stithians in 1920, his
Father had been on a Mine Sweeper during World War One and had been sunk at least three times, needless to say, once home his physical and mental condition deteriorated rapidly and he spent the rest of his life in and out of Hospital.  Leaving his Mother to raise my Father and his younger brother.  Along with many other Cornish families during the Depression Father’s early years were a struggle. My Grandmother’s Baptist background and Grandfather’s strict Primitive Methodist faith provided a firm framework to grow up in, and indirectly gave my Father an awareness of language and literature which stayed with him for the rest of his life.

He won a place at a local grammar school, unfortunately with no funding for books or uniform he left school at 13 to find work. A succession of local jobs followed some more successful than others. In 1938, he joined the Devon & Cornwall Light Infantry and was sent straight to India.  This must have been a time of many contrasts and contradictions for my Father.

He returned to Britain after the Second World War had ended, and eventually became a Shoe Shop Manager and married in 1952.  Fathers’ job took him to Bristol (where I was born) and Hampshire before eventually returning to Launceston in 1960.  I can remember my Father writing from my early childhood - the kitchen table on Sunday afternoons was always littered with the casualties!  Once we returned to Cornwall Father really got into his stride, writing seriously and successfully, having several poems published in local magazines.