(Francis James) Ronald Bottrall (2 September 1906, Camborne, Cornwall-25 June 1989) was a Cornish poet. He was praised highly by F.R. Leavis and Martin Seymour-Smith.
Education: Redruth Grammar School; Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Lector in English, University of Helsingfors, Finland, 1929–31
Commonwealth fund fellowship, Princeton University, USA, 1931-33 [1]
Johore Professor of English Language and Literature, Raffles College, Singapore, 1933–37
Assistant Director, British Institute, Florence, Italy, 1937–38
Secretary, SOAS, 1939–45
Air Ministry: Temporary Administrative Officer, 1940; Priority Officer, 1941
British Council Representative: in Sweden, 1941; in Italy, 1945; in Brazil, 1954; in Greece, 1957; in Japan (and Cultural Counsellor, HM Embassy, Tokyo), 1959
Controller of Education, British Council, 1950–54
Chief, Fellowships and Training Branch, Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1963-65.
Honours and awards
OBE, 1949.
Coronation Medal, 1953
Syracuse International Poetry Prize, 1954
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 1955
Knight of St. John, 1972
Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, 1973
Knight Commander, Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Malta, 1977
He was the father of Anthony Bottrall, the diplomat, expert in developmental agriculture and politician.
The Loosening and other Poems, 1931
Festivals of Fire, 1934
The Turning Path, 1939
Farewell and Welcome, 1945
Selected Poems, 1946
The Palisades of Fear, 1949
Adam Unparadised, 1954
Collected Poems, 1961
Day and Night, 1974
Poems 1955-73, 1974
Reflections on the Nile, 1980
Against a Setting Sun, 1983
(with Gunnar Ekelöf) T.S. Eliot: Dikter i Urval, 1942
(with Margaret Bottrall) The Zephyr Book of English Verse, 1945
(with Margaret Bottrall) Collected English Verse, 1946
Rome (Art Centres of the World), 1968.
