Blunden, Edmund Charles

Edmund Charles Blunden (1896-1974), poet, was born in London on 1 November 1866, and educated at Christ's Hospital and Queen's College, Oxford. He served in France and Belgium with the Royal Sussex Regiment, 1916-1919. Blunden was Professor of English Literature at Tokyo University, 1924-1927, and a Fellow and tutor in English literature at Merton College, Oxford, 1931-1943. He was part of the U.K. Liaison Mission in Tokyo, 1948-1950, and became Emeritus Professor at the University of Hong Kong in 1953, retiring in 1964. He was Professor of Poetry, Oxford University, 1966-1968. Blunden published biographies of Thomas Hardy and Shelley, and poems. He died at his home in Long Melford on 20 January 1974.

Epithet: poet and critic