May Wedderburn Cannan

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May Wedderburn Cannan (18931973) was a British poet.

She was a poet active in World War I. Although May ceased writing for publication in the 1920s, in her final years she completed an autobiographical work entitled "Grey Ghosts and Voices"(1976). The book looks back to her Edwardian childhood, the war years and those years immediately afterwards.

[edit] Family

She was the sister of the novelist Joanna Cannan. She was the daughter of the academic Charles Cannan and cousin to the British novelist and playwright Gilbert Cannan. She is also related to the famous Pullein-Thompson sisters being an aunt, and a great aunt of Charlotte Pullein-Thompson (Josephine Pullein-Thompson's daughter).

She was engaged to Bevil Quiller-Couch, son of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Bevil served as gunner in World War I, and survived without injury only to die in the Spanish flu pandemic. She subsequently married Percival James Slater,a balloonist in World War I, and promoted to Brigadier in the World War II.