(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, 1929–31Commonwealth fund fellowship, Princeton University, USA, 1931-33 [1]Johore Professor of English Language and Literature, Raffles College, Singapore, 1933–37Assistant Director, British Institute, Florence, Italy, 1937–38Secretary, SOAS, 1939–45Air Ministry: Temporary Administrative Officer, 1940; Priority Officer, 1941British Council Representative: in Sweden, 1941; in Italy, 1945; in Brazil, 1954; in Greece, 1957; in Japan (and Cultural Counsellor, HM Embassy, Tokyo), 1959Controller of Education, British Council, 1950–54Chief, Fellowships and Training Branch, Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1963-65.Honours and awards
OBE, 1949.Coronation Medal, 1953Syracuse International Poetry Prize, 1954Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 1955Knight of St. John, 1972Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, 1973Knight Commander, Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Malta, 1977He was the father of Anthony Bottrall, the diplomat, expert in developmental agriculture and politician.
The Loosening and other Poems, 1931Festivals of Fire, 1934The Turning Path, 1939Farewell and Welcome, 1945Selected Poems, 1946The Palisades of Fear, 1949Adam Unparadised, 1954Collected Poems, 1961Day and Night, 1974Poems 1955-73, 1974Reflections on the Nile, 1980Against 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, 1946Rome (Art Centres of the World), 1968. 