David Jones' Brocker

Brockley isn't only the birthplace of a spinning-wheel-legged England winger, a superflous-eyepatch-wearing MOR singer and a racist otter-botherer. We have also given the world David Jones, the 20th century poet and painter, whose work is celebrated here by the New Statesman. It notes:


He was born in Brockley in south-east London (then Kent) to a Welsh father and cockney mother. At the age of 14 he was still wearing short trousers; five years later he enlisted with the Royal Welch Fusiliers and was marching to Southampton for the boat to France and the Western Front. Jones was an enthusiastic combatant. Asking "Is it worth it?" in the columns of the Brockley parish magazine, he answered his own question with an unequivocal "Yes".

Thanks to JPM (rapidly becoming BC's unofficial historian) for the spot.