George Essex Evans Correspondence

George Essex Evans was born in London and migrated to Queensland in 1881. He worked as a teacher, reporter for the 'Queenslander', farmer and public servant in Allora and Toowoomba and then contributed poetry and articles to local and Australian journals and to some British publications. In 1899 at Drayton he married Blanche Hopkins, née Eglinton. His first volume of poetry was published in London in 1891, with later volumes in 1898, 1906 and a collected volume published posthumously in 1928. His patriotic poems brought Evans to national attention. He commemorated in verse the Federation movement, Queensland's golden jubilee, Australia's statesmen and the work of the pioneers. His publications were well received in Australia and England and he was one of the best-known and most popular poets of the day. When Evans died suddenly in Toowoomba on 10 November 1909, Prime Minister Alfred Deakin described him as Australia's 'national poet'. (Australian Dictionary of Biography)