John Masefield was a poet, known for his poems of the sea (as a young
man, he was apprenticed aboard a sailing ship) and his narrative poems,
although he also wrote a number of novels. He became Poet Laureate in
1930.
Poet laureate of England, from 1930 until his death on May 12, 1967.
John Masefield passed away on May 12, 1967, only three weeks away from what would have been his 89th birthday on June 1.
Although a genuinely popular writer both as poet and novelist, his modesty was such that, when he submitted his official verses as Poet Laureate to the Times, he always enclosed a stamped addressed envelope in case the newspaper rejected them.