Bernard Gutteridge

Bernard Hugh Gutteridge (1916–1985) was an English poet, novelist, and playwright. He is primarily known for his war poems, considered "verse-journalism of a very high order" by Vernon Scannell.

Early life and education Son of Captain Bernard George Gutteridge, MRCS, LRCP, late RAMC, of Littlecroft, Southampton, and his wife Mary, daughter of William Baxter, Gutteridge was born at Southampton, and educated at Cranleigh. He worked in advertising both before and after the war (part of the time for the J. Walter Thompson agency). His 1954 novel The Agency Game is set in the advertising world.

Career Gutteridge served during World War II in Madagascar, India, and with the 36th Division of the British Army in Burma under Combined Operations alongside Alun Lewis. He also served in the Hampshire Regiment and Royal Sussex Regiment. He was a director of the brewers Arthur Guinness, Son, & Co. from 1949 to 1979. Gutteridge subsequently remarried, in 1971, to Elizabeth Tegher.

Works Gutteridge's writings include Traveller's Eye (1947), The Agency Game (1954), Collected Poems (1927-1955) (1956), The Clock: Poems and a Play (1973), and Old Damson-Face: Poems 1934 to 1974 (1976).