He was the son of H.F. Newbolt, vicar of St Mary's, Bilston, Staffordshire (where he was born). He was educated at Clifton College, where he was head of the school in 1881 and edited the school magazine, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1887 and practised until 1899. His first book was a story, Taken from the Enemy (1892), and in 1895 he published a tragedy, Mordred; but it was the publication of his ballads, Admirals All (1897), that created his literary reputation. These were followed by other volumes of stirring verse, The Island Race (1898), The Sailing of the Long-ships (1902), Songs of the Sea (1904).
Probably the best known of all Newbolt's poems and the one for which he is now chiefly remembered is Vitae Lampada, which contains the memorable refrain:
Play up, play up, and play the game. [This poem is detailed in full in the Clifton College page - as the poem refers to a cricket match on its famous close]
From 1900 to 1905, Newbolt was the editor of the Monthly Review. During the First World War, he became controller of telecommunications and worked as an official historian.
Newbolt came to dislike his most famous poem Vitai Lampada; during a 1923 speaking tour of Canada he was constantly called upon to recite the poem: “it’s a kind of Frankenstein’s Monster that I created thirty years ago,” he complained.
Shortly after war was declared Newbolt, a friend and contemporary of Sir Douglas Haig, was recruited by the head of Britain’s War Propaganda Bureau (WPB), Charles Masterman, to help shape and maintain public opinion in favour of the war effort.
Newbolt, who was appointed controller of telecommunications during the war, was knighted in 1915.
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