- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Betjemann
- John Betjeman was born on August 28, 1906 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock (1972), Londoners (1965) and That Was the Week That Was (1962). He was married to Penelope Chetwode. He died on May 19, 1984 in Trebetherick, Cornwall, England, UK.
- SpousePenelope Chetwode(July 29, 1933 - May 19, 1984) (his death, 2 children)
- He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1960 Queen's New Year Honours List and made a Knight Bachelor in the 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to literature.
- Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984.
- He separated from his wife Penelope, after she converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1950s. They remained devoted to one another but found that they could no longer tolerate living together. They never divorced. She continued to live at the family home in Wantage, Oxfordshire, while he moved to Chelsea, London, and spent much of his time at his second home in Trebetherick, Cornwall, often accompanied by Lady Elizabeth Cavendish - they met and fell in love in 1951, and remained lifelong friends. Family friends said that ideally Betjeman wanted to be married to both Penelope and Elizabeth at the same time.
- Son Paul (born 1937, Uffington, Berkshire) and Candida (born 1942, Dublin, Ireland). Candida Betjeman (later Candida Lycett-Green) was also a poet, popular in the 1960s.
- Having been bullied at school during World War I because of his German surname (Betjemann), he changed the spelling to Betjeman.
- Shortly before his death, when he was wheelchair-bound following a heart-attack and a stroke, and suffering from Parkinson's, he was asked whether he had any regrets about his life - what he had done or hadn't done. "I haven't had enough sex," he replied. And on his writing, he said "I like writing poetry. But I'm not certain that it's any good. I only hope to heaven it is. Time will tell."
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