George Merrill

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George Merrill was the lifetime companion of English poet and gay activist Edward Carpenter.

Merrill a working-class young man who had been raised in the slums of Sheffield and had no formal education. He met Edward Carpenter on a train in 1891, and moved into Carpenter's home at Millthorpe in 1898. His arrival was commemorated by Carpenter in the poem Hafiz to the Cupbearer.

The two lived openly as a couple for thirty years, until Merrill died. When Carpenter himself died the following year, he was buried beside Merrill.

The relationship between Carpenter and Merrill formed the motivation for E. M. Forster's novel Maurice, and the character of the gamekeeper Scudder was in part modeled after George Merrill.