Cicely Hamilton (1872–1952)
Author of William: An Englishman
About the Author
Works by Cicely Hamilton
Associated Works
Gender in Modernism: New Geographies, Complex Intersections (2007) — Contributor — 12 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hamilton, Cicely Mary
- Other names
- Hammill, Cicely (birth)
- Birthdate
- 1872-06-15
- Date of death
- 1952-12-06
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- journalist
novelist
actor
suffragist
nurse - Organizations
- Women Writers' Suffrage League(co-founder)
Women's Social and Political Union
Women's Freedom League
Birmingham Repertory Company
Time and Tide - Relationships
- Delafield, E. M. (friend)
- Short biography
- Cicely Hamilton was born Cicely Hammill in London, the daughter of Danzil Hammill, a British army officer, and Maude Piers. When Cicely was 10 years old, her mother disappeared from her life. Although Cicely always refused to talk about it, it is believed that her mother was committed to a psychiatric institution. While her father was serving abroad, Cicely was brought up by foster parents. She first worked as a teacher, but wanted to go on the stage. She got a job as an actress with a touring company and changed her name to Hamilton. When she could not get leading roles in London, Cicely Hamilton turned to writing plays, novels, and nonfiction. One of her first plays, Diana of Dobsons, was an immediate success. In 1908, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union, but after a few months left to join the breakaway Women's Freedom League. She also became a co-founder with Bessie Hatton of the Women Writers' Suffrage League. At the outbreak of World War I, she became one of the first to join the new Scottish Women's Hospitals Committee and helped establish a hospital at Royaumont Abbey in France. During the summer of 1916, she nursed soldiers wounded at the Battle of the Somme. In 1917, she left the organization and soon afterwards was asked to form a repertory company at the Somme. For the rest of the war, the company performed for Allied soldiers fighting on the Western Front. After the war, Cicely Hamilton became a freelance journalist, writing for newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express, and as a playwright for the Birmingham Repertory Company. She also was a regular contributor to the feminist journal Time and Tide. Her war novel William: An Englishman was awarded the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse-Anglais in 1920. Her autobiography, entitled Life Errant, was published in 1935.
- Nationality
- England
UK - Birthplace
- Paddington, London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Paddington, London, England, UK
Malvern, Worcestershire, England, UK
Bad Homburg, Germany - Place of death
- Portugal
- Associated Place (for map)
- Paddington, London, England, UK
Members
Reviews
Persephone book #1. Another excellent book from Persephone that I would never have found otherwise. One thing I love about the Persephone publications is that they don't really do a book summary on the book jacket, so unless you dig a little, as a reader you really don't know what you're getting into. That worked really well for this novel.
In [William - An Englishman], William is sort of floundering as an adult. His domineering mother has died and left him enough money to live on. He falls show more into a political group dedicated to pacifism and women's suffrage. There he meets Griselda and the two fall in love. For their honeymoon they travel to Belgium. Before they leave they hear that "some Archduke" has been assassinated, but it feels remote and they continue their honeymoon travels. While there, on a secluded farm in the countryside, they start to hear distant "thunder" and the family hosting them disappears. It becomes violently clear that they are trapped in the middle of a world war. The rest of the book details their war experience, and I won't give away any additional plot.
I really liked this. The plot was exciting and the character development and insights into WWI were well-written. show less
In [William - An Englishman], William is sort of floundering as an adult. His domineering mother has died and left him enough money to live on. He falls show more into a political group dedicated to pacifism and women's suffrage. There he meets Griselda and the two fall in love. For their honeymoon they travel to Belgium. Before they leave they hear that "some Archduke" has been assassinated, but it feels remote and they continue their honeymoon travels. While there, on a secluded farm in the countryside, they start to hear distant "thunder" and the family hosting them disappears. It becomes violently clear that they are trapped in the middle of a world war. The rest of the book details their war experience, and I won't give away any additional plot.
I really liked this. The plot was exciting and the character development and insights into WWI were well-written. show less
I was prompted to read this by Savidgereads who has started his Persephone reading challenge. However I didn’t have a copy, and couldn’t really justify buying myself a Persephone book just before Christmas. So I downloaded a free copy from the open archive. It is testament to the brilliance of this book that I bothered to continue reading – the text was full of ridiculous errors, which drove me slightly mad. I will definitely buy the Persephone edition to add to my collection when I show more can – as I will surely want to re-read it at some stage.
This novel originally published in 1920 was Cicely Hamilton’s blistering answer to the realities of war as experienced by Mr and Mrs Everyman. Cicely Hamilton was serving in France at the time that she wrote this novel, and we see the war ravaged landscape through her eyes. Lulling the reader into a false sense of security, the novel starts off benignly enough; William Tully is an unremarkable young man in an insurance office, small, weak, pale and rather dominated by his mother. When his mother dies – William delights in his freedom, and uses it to launch himself upon the world of political agitators, aided and abetted by his new friend Faraday. He meets Griselda a young suffragette ‘his exact counterpart in petticoats’ who has already spent time in prison and is a zealous agitator herself, these two ideally suited young people, inevitably marry. So concerned are they with their own political ideals and activist confederates that they have very little idea of the gathering storm clouds over Europe in the summer of 1914. They honeymoon in Ardennes in Belgium where they bury themselves in a cottage for three weeks, neither of them able to converse with the locals, and having no contact with anyone back in England they are in total ignorance that war has broken out. On the day they start to think about returning to England and the hustle, bustle and political landscape they have both so missed, they find the farm nearby inexplicably deserted. The following day outside the gates of this same farm, the young couple come across a group of German soldiers. Instantly they are faced with the brutalities ad horrors of wartime as they are taken hostage.
“There, in the middle of the road, they also halted—the soldiers smartly, the captives uncertainly—and William saw the two civilians clearly. One was a short and rotund little man who might have been sixty to sixty-five and might have been a local tradesman—nearly bald and with drooping moustaches, rather like a stout little seal. Essentially an ordinary and unpretentious creature, he was obviously aiming at dignity; his chin was lifted at an angle that revealed the measure of the roll of fat that rested on his collar, and he walked almost with a strut, as if he were attempting to march. Afterwards William remembered that he had seen on the little man’s portly stomach some sort of insignia or ribbon; at the time it conveyed nothing to him, he was told later that it was the outward token of a mayor. He remembered also that the little man’s face was pale, with a sickly yellow-grey pallor; and that as he came down the steps with his head held up the drooping moustache quivered and the fat chin beneath it twitched spasmodically. There was something extraordinarily pitiful about his attempt at a personal dignity which nature had wholly denied him; William felt the appeal in it even before he grasped the situation the meaning and need of pose.”
Over the next few days the horrors which face both William and the reader are desperate, the images which Hamilton leaves the reader with are reminiscent of Pat Barker and even the war poets themselves. However it is William’s later response to his experiences in Belgium which are at the heart of this novel, his disappointment in the small contribution he must inevitably play is heart-breaking. Cicely Hamilton’s powerful and enormously readable novel is an important and brilliant piece of writing not just about War, but about socialism, suffrage and the naivety of youth, and the response of the many to the threat imposed on one nation by another. How different are today’s celebrity obsessed young people with their sense of entitlement! show less
This novel originally published in 1920 was Cicely Hamilton’s blistering answer to the realities of war as experienced by Mr and Mrs Everyman. Cicely Hamilton was serving in France at the time that she wrote this novel, and we see the war ravaged landscape through her eyes. Lulling the reader into a false sense of security, the novel starts off benignly enough; William Tully is an unremarkable young man in an insurance office, small, weak, pale and rather dominated by his mother. When his mother dies – William delights in his freedom, and uses it to launch himself upon the world of political agitators, aided and abetted by his new friend Faraday. He meets Griselda a young suffragette ‘his exact counterpart in petticoats’ who has already spent time in prison and is a zealous agitator herself, these two ideally suited young people, inevitably marry. So concerned are they with their own political ideals and activist confederates that they have very little idea of the gathering storm clouds over Europe in the summer of 1914. They honeymoon in Ardennes in Belgium where they bury themselves in a cottage for three weeks, neither of them able to converse with the locals, and having no contact with anyone back in England they are in total ignorance that war has broken out. On the day they start to think about returning to England and the hustle, bustle and political landscape they have both so missed, they find the farm nearby inexplicably deserted. The following day outside the gates of this same farm, the young couple come across a group of German soldiers. Instantly they are faced with the brutalities ad horrors of wartime as they are taken hostage.
“There, in the middle of the road, they also halted—the soldiers smartly, the captives uncertainly—and William saw the two civilians clearly. One was a short and rotund little man who might have been sixty to sixty-five and might have been a local tradesman—nearly bald and with drooping moustaches, rather like a stout little seal. Essentially an ordinary and unpretentious creature, he was obviously aiming at dignity; his chin was lifted at an angle that revealed the measure of the roll of fat that rested on his collar, and he walked almost with a strut, as if he were attempting to march. Afterwards William remembered that he had seen on the little man’s portly stomach some sort of insignia or ribbon; at the time it conveyed nothing to him, he was told later that it was the outward token of a mayor. He remembered also that the little man’s face was pale, with a sickly yellow-grey pallor; and that as he came down the steps with his head held up the drooping moustache quivered and the fat chin beneath it twitched spasmodically. There was something extraordinarily pitiful about his attempt at a personal dignity which nature had wholly denied him; William felt the appeal in it even before he grasped the situation the meaning and need of pose.”
Over the next few days the horrors which face both William and the reader are desperate, the images which Hamilton leaves the reader with are reminiscent of Pat Barker and even the war poets themselves. However it is William’s later response to his experiences in Belgium which are at the heart of this novel, his disappointment in the small contribution he must inevitably play is heart-breaking. Cicely Hamilton’s powerful and enormously readable novel is an important and brilliant piece of writing not just about War, but about socialism, suffrage and the naivety of youth, and the response of the many to the threat imposed on one nation by another. How different are today’s celebrity obsessed young people with their sense of entitlement! show less
CAUTION: substantial SPOILERS!
I really have to give this one some thought before I'm sure of it. It's a novel that clearly depicts the futility of war (in this case, World War I, and I've read this book as the start in the VMC Group's The Great War Theme Read), but I'm not entirely sure of what the author's ultimate response is to her characters – or to the War itself.
Before I go on, I see one serious stylistic default in the novel. Prior to their encounter with the War in France, there show more are some quite funny scenes with William and Griselda, but unfortunately Hamilton doesn't leave well-enough alone. I mean by this, she tends to over-explain things to her readers rather than just let the satire of well-meaning but dim-witted "radicals" speak for itself. It's a problem of excessive authorial editorializing.
For example:
(ch. 4). Hey, thanks, but we know there's humbuggery involved and you don't have to tell us. Let their actions speak for themselves without authorial editorializing. This happens too often throughout the novel.
And now, the real problem: Who is the real William? And what is Hamilton's response to him (and to her other characters)? Obviously William in the end is not an "internationally minded" revolutionary, and I think Hamilton – despite her own "radical" credentials – ultimately takes a "blood and soil" approach to the War, particularly considering the eventual "heroism" (at least after conscription) of many of William's old friends like Faraday.
But what is the ultimate result of William's life?
(ending pages). He's buried "without mourners," and we never do find out whether anyone wrote to Edith Haynes, though we strongly suspect that they did not.
(On this latter point, I like the ambiguity, because once William is dead, he's dead and the story ends with him. What's the effect, if any, on survivors? Does Edith mourn? Does she ever even find out enough to mourn? Is William just one of an entire generation of forgotten casualties? We don't know one way or the other, and this ambiguity gives the novel's ending a real – indeed, a real-life – strength.)
I'm giving this 3*** at least tentatively, though I might revisit it and rate it perhaps a bit more highly. My criticism isn't based on agreement or disagreement with the author's views but on whether she's adequately expressed them. On the one hand, her satire is often quite humorous but can also unnecessarily overstate the obvious. The ultimate conclusion leaves us with a sense of complete futility to William's life – but at the same time, I'm not entirely sure of Hamilton's own position on the War or whether she's in fact as wavering as William was. show less
I really have to give this one some thought before I'm sure of it. It's a novel that clearly depicts the futility of war (in this case, World War I, and I've read this book as the start in the VMC Group's The Great War Theme Read), but I'm not entirely sure of what the author's ultimate response is to her characters – or to the War itself.
Before I go on, I see one serious stylistic default in the novel. Prior to their encounter with the War in France, there show more are some quite funny scenes with William and Griselda, but unfortunately Hamilton doesn't leave well-enough alone. I mean by this, she tends to over-explain things to her readers rather than just let the satire of well-meaning but dim-witted "radicals" speak for itself. It's a problem of excessive authorial editorializing.
For example:
And the unconscious little humbug clasped her hands and, from force of habit, rose to her feet, addressing an imaginary audience. William, an equally unconscious humbug, also rose to his feet and kissed her. It was one of those happy and right-minded moments in which inclination agrees with duty, and they were able to admire themselves and each other for a sacrifice which had cost them nothing.
(ch. 4). Hey, thanks, but we know there's humbuggery involved and you don't have to tell us. Let their actions speak for themselves without authorial editorializing. This happens too often throughout the novel.
And now, the real problem: Who is the real William? And what is Hamilton's response to him (and to her other characters)? Obviously William in the end is not an "internationally minded" revolutionary, and I think Hamilton – despite her own "radical" credentials – ultimately takes a "blood and soil" approach to the War, particularly considering the eventual "heroism" (at least after conscription) of many of William's old friends like Faraday.
But what is the ultimate result of William's life?
"I don't seem to have been much good . . . but there comes a time . . . when nothing matters."
"Not even," asked the chaplain, feeling his way, "the sense that you have done your duty?"
"Most people do that," said William. "The question is . . . if you've been much use when you've done it."
The chaplain, puzzled, said something of infinite mercy and the standard of God not being as the standard of man.
"If you've done your best . . ." he suggested. "Most people do that," said William again . . . and slid back once more without into silence.
(ending pages). He's buried "without mourners," and we never do find out whether anyone wrote to Edith Haynes, though we strongly suspect that they did not.
(On this latter point, I like the ambiguity, because once William is dead, he's dead and the story ends with him. What's the effect, if any, on survivors? Does Edith mourn? Does she ever even find out enough to mourn? Is William just one of an entire generation of forgotten casualties? We don't know one way or the other, and this ambiguity gives the novel's ending a real – indeed, a real-life – strength.)
I'm giving this 3*** at least tentatively, though I might revisit it and rate it perhaps a bit more highly. My criticism isn't based on agreement or disagreement with the author's views but on whether she's adequately expressed them. On the one hand, her satire is often quite humorous but can also unnecessarily overstate the obvious. The ultimate conclusion leaves us with a sense of complete futility to William's life – but at the same time, I'm not entirely sure of Hamilton's own position on the War or whether she's in fact as wavering as William was. show less
"What he termed public life-a ferment of protestation and grievance...with all the extremist's contempt for those who balance"
By sally tarbox on 23 March 2018
Format: Paperback
William Tully is a quiet little clerk in pre-WW1 London, described as 'painstaking and obedient...unobtrusive and diffident. To his colleagues, he is 'a negligible quantity. He was not unpopular- it was merely that he did not matter.'
Cowed by his redoubtable mother, William finds himself - following her unexpected show more death- a free agent, possessed of a small income. But what to do now? "His life had been so ordered, so bound down and directed by others, that even his desires were tamed to the wishes of others and left to himself he could not tell what he desired."
By chance, he latches on to colleague Faraday, whose private life is entirely dedicated to social activism; under his tutelage, William becomes a regular at meetings promoting women's suffrage, pacifism and other causes. And here he meets his future wife Griselda; their shallow, ignorant outlook focussing on protests and struggles.
"They believed (quite rightly) in the purity of their own intentions; and concluded (quite wrongly) that the intentions of all persons who did not agree with them must therefore be evil and impure...They read newspapers written by persons who wholly agreed with their views...From these they quoted, in public and imposingly, with absolute faith in their statements."
Paying no heed to the greater world affairs of 1914, they spend their honeymoon in the Belgian Ardennes...and find themselves in the middle of hideous war. Slowly, as he witnesses the atrocities, William's mindset changes; a realisation that the trivial complaints they made about British society were as nothing compared with this:
"He remembered -quite plainly, he remembered - a letter writte to the daily Press to point out with indignation that one of the Leaders of the Movement had been hurt in the ankle in the course of the Great Civil War."
With experience, William renounces pacifism for militarism, but even here he is doomed to disappointment...
A very well-written novel; the author herself was both a suffragette and a nurse in WW1 France. Comic at times, as we follow the committed but narrow-minded young couple in their efforts to redeem society, the descriptions of the war are vivid and shocking. I'm not sure we really get to know William; written in the 3rd person, he is brought to us through Hamilton's eyes, and perhaps it loses a little immediacy through that. But an unusual and interesting work. show less
By sally tarbox on 23 March 2018
Format: Paperback
William Tully is a quiet little clerk in pre-WW1 London, described as 'painstaking and obedient...unobtrusive and diffident. To his colleagues, he is 'a negligible quantity. He was not unpopular- it was merely that he did not matter.'
Cowed by his redoubtable mother, William finds himself - following her unexpected show more death- a free agent, possessed of a small income. But what to do now? "His life had been so ordered, so bound down and directed by others, that even his desires were tamed to the wishes of others and left to himself he could not tell what he desired."
By chance, he latches on to colleague Faraday, whose private life is entirely dedicated to social activism; under his tutelage, William becomes a regular at meetings promoting women's suffrage, pacifism and other causes. And here he meets his future wife Griselda; their shallow, ignorant outlook focussing on protests and struggles.
"They believed (quite rightly) in the purity of their own intentions; and concluded (quite wrongly) that the intentions of all persons who did not agree with them must therefore be evil and impure...They read newspapers written by persons who wholly agreed with their views...From these they quoted, in public and imposingly, with absolute faith in their statements."
Paying no heed to the greater world affairs of 1914, they spend their honeymoon in the Belgian Ardennes...and find themselves in the middle of hideous war. Slowly, as he witnesses the atrocities, William's mindset changes; a realisation that the trivial complaints they made about British society were as nothing compared with this:
"He remembered -quite plainly, he remembered - a letter writte to the daily Press to point out with indignation that one of the Leaders of the Movement had been hurt in the ankle in the course of the Great Civil War."
With experience, William renounces pacifism for militarism, but even here he is doomed to disappointment...
A very well-written novel; the author herself was both a suffragette and a nurse in WW1 France. Comic at times, as we follow the committed but narrow-minded young couple in their efforts to redeem society, the descriptions of the war are vivid and shocking. I'm not sure we really get to know William; written in the 3rd person, he is brought to us through Hamilton's eyes, and perhaps it loses a little immediacy through that. But an unusual and interesting work. show less
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