Robert Graves (1895-1985)

Death: 7th December 1985
Location: Iglesia de San Juan Bautista Churchyard, Deià, Mallorca, Spain
Photo taken by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni
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British author, translator and poet. He was awarded a scholarship to St John’s College, Oxford but he instead enlisted at the beginning of World War One. He was so badly injured in 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, that his family were informed that he had died. After his recovery he spent the rest of the War in England. 
Graves became friends with Siegfried Sassoon; in 1917 he was involved in saving him from a court-martial, and through Sassoon he was introduced to Wilfred Owen. Graves wrote about his experiences of The First-World War in his autobiography Goodbye to All That which was published in 1929.
In 1918 Graves was married to Nancy Nicholson but the marriage failed in 1926 and Graves went to live with Laura Riding in Mallorca. His most successful work, I, Claudius, was published in 1934 and the sequel, Claudius the God, was published in 1935. 
Due to the Spanish Civil War Graves and Riding left Mallorca and in 1939 they went to the US where their relationship ended. Graves returned to England and began a relationship with Beryl Hodge, who he eventually married. In 1946 the couple moved to Mallorca where they set up home and remained until their deaths.

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