Exhibition board relating to Charles Causley and his connection to Jack Clemo

Charles Causley (1917-2003) was a poet, teacher and broadcaster. He was born in Cornwall and lived there for the majority of his life. During the Second World War he served in the Communications Branch of the Royal Navy as a coder. After his active service, which was recorded in his diaries, he returned to Launceston, Cronwall and taught there unitil 1976 when he chose to concentrate solely on his writing career and, although he wrote and published plays in the 1930s, it was at this point that his career as a writer and poet blossomed. 

Causley's poetry was heavily influenced by traditional popular forms such as folk songs, verses and hymns. It also reflected his experience in the Navy and as a teacher. Items in his archive illustrate how what he had gone through was translated and developed into his literary output. 

He died on November 4th, 2003, aged 86, and was buried next to his mother's grave in St Thomas' Churchyard, barely 100 yards from where he was born.

Causley's archive includes literary papers, including working notebooks, manuscripts and typescripts; publicity material; professional and personal photographs; personal papers, including diaries; papers relating to Causley's careers in teaching, broadcasting and the Navy and Causley's printed book collection. Prominent in the collection is the correspondance that Causley engaged in with a number of other writers. These include Ted Hughes, Siegfried Sassoon, Jack Clemo and Frances Bellerby.