Item 21 - Drama

Clive Sansom (1910-1981), poet and speech educator, was born at Finchley, North London, in 1910. He worked as a clerk and salesman in London and studied speech and drama under Marjorie Gullan at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, and the Speech Institute (1930-35) and phonetics under Professor Daniel Jones at University College, London (1935-6). He lectured in speech training at Borough Road Training College, Isleworth, and the Speech Fellowship (1937-9) and edited the Speech Fellowship Bulletin (1934-49). He was instructor in the Drama School of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and examiner in speech and spoken poetry. In 1937 he married a fellow student and speech teacher, Ruth Large from Tasmania. Although neither was at the time a Quaker, they were married in the Friends Meeting House at Winchmore Hill. They were both interested in the Society of Friends and had attended a few Meetings. Clive's teacher and friend, Marjorie Gullan, was a Quaker. Soon they both joined the Friends. Clive Sansom contributed poems and articles to Friends' journals and studied religious topics. During the war Clive, as a conscientious objector to war, did land work, partly based on "Spicelands" a Quaker Centre for special "war work". In 1949 Clive and Ruth Sansom travelled to Hobart to visit Ruth's family and decided to settle in Tasmania. Clive was appointed, with Ruth, Supervisor of Speech Education for the Tasmanian Education Department and was responsible for the Speech Centre 1950 - 1965 and was also examiner in speech and drama for the A.M.E.B. He and Ruth broadcast and wrote scripts for the ABC. programs for primary schools. Clive also wrote or edited a number of short plays for schools. Clive Sansom's main works included In the midst of death, (1940), The unfailing Spring (1942), Passion Play (a novel based on the Oberammergau passion play, 1950), The Witnesses (Festival of Britain prize winning poem 1951), The World turned upside down (a morality play, 1948), The Cathedral (1958), performed in Salisbury for that Cathedral's 700th anniversary 1961), Dorset Village (1962), Swithun of Winchester (produced in Winchester Cathedral for the 100th anniversary of the translation of St. Swithun 1971), Francis of Assisi (performed in Winchester Cathedral 1978, published 1981). He also wrote or edited a number of works for schools, including Adventures in words with Rodney Bennett (1936), Speech rhymes, Acting rhymes, Counting rhymes, Story rhymes, (1942-80) Speech and commucation in the primary school (1965) etc. and edited a number of anthologies, such as The poet speaks (with Marjorie Gullan 1940), The English Heart (1946). He published a number of poems and short stories in periodicals and newspapers from the 1930s onwards. Clive was also interested in conservation and was patron of the Wilderness Society. The papers consist of drafts and typescripts of his works (and some published copies) together with research notes, news cuttings, extracts from historical studies etc. on the background of his topics; correspondence with his literary agent, publishers and broadcasters, and cuttings of review notices.