Edward John Bolus (born 5 May 1879) was a poet and writer, civil servant, and clergyman. He spent his civil service career in India, which appears prominently in his writing.
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Life
Born May 5, 1879 to Harriet S. Bolus and her husband Edward, a schoolmaster in Stoke Newington in London, John studied at the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, before matriculating for a BA in Classics at The Queen's College, Oxford, in 1898.
In 1902 he took the civil service examination, and on 14 November 1903 arrived in India, where he served in Bombay and in due course Pune as 'ass[istan]t coll[ecto]r and mag[istrate]'. By 1905 he was a second assistant in Land Revenue and General Administration, and by 1 October 1915 an 'Assistant Collector', based in Pune. He was mobilised in 1914, and his highest acting rank was Capt. 26th (Sind) Bn. of the Indian Defence Force.
While in India, Bolus sustained his Classical interests and was an active member of the (apparently short-lived) Bombay Branch of the Classical Association, 'which owed its existence mainly to the enthusiasm of a learned Jesuit, Father Ailinger'. On 6 April 1911 he gave a lecture to the Branch on 'Plato as a Literary Artist'. It was no doubt his activities here that gave rise to his 1920 publication Bombaia, a long description of Bombay in Latin verse.
Around 1926 Bolus left the Civil Service and in that year was ordained a priest in the Church of England. By 1930 he was priest to Pamber and Monk Sherborne (which were in the gift of The Queen's College and were merged in that year). He remained the resident curate at Pamber Heath into the 1940s.