They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

On Sunday it will be exactly 100 years since the first appearance in print of these words, which have been for so long synonymous with military remembrance. The centenary is likely to be reported in The Times, since it was to this newspaper that Laurence Binyon successfully submitted his poem For the Fallen, having previously had it rejected by the rival Morning Post. Expect correspondence on the matter, too, from Edmund Gray, whose erudite observations on a wide range of subjects are regularly aired on The Thunderer’s letters page.

Gray, a retired historic buildings inspector, is one of the poet’s six surviving grandchildren, the son of his youngest daughter Nicolete. Another is former teacher Jonathan Higgens, his junior by a few months, whose mother was one of Nicolete’s twin elder sisters. Both 75-year-olds live in Oxford, Edmund in Iffley and Jonathan in a riverside house in New Osney where he and wife Anne James, The Oxford Times’s art writer, are noted for their generous hospitality.

It was here that we three gathered one morning last week to discuss the literary legacy of their grandfather. As Jonathan readily acknowledges, recognition of it over the years has owed more to the efforts of his cousin. Edmund jokes: “Yes, I’m the literary heir but Jonathan is the cranial one.” The reference is to his resemblance to Binyon, as may be observed in the portraits on this page.

Neither has strong memories of their grandfather, since they were still under four when he died, aged 73, in 1943. They know him by repute, though, as a well-liked man, who was particularly fond of children. Jonathan says: “I have one clear memory of sitting on his knee, looking at catalogues — from the Army and Navy Stores? — showing lots of pictures of clocks.”

That Binyon is not better known, while his most famous poem is familiar to millions, should be the source of some shame in Oxford. Throughout his life he had strong links here. He read Greats at Trinity College. Having been a brilliant student of the classics at St Paul’s, he was able to rest on his laurels to an extent and devote himself to friends — they included the Poet Laureate Robert Bridges who lived on Boars Hill — and to writing poetry.

He won the Newdigate Prize with the poem Persephone, published by Blackwells. Earlier winners include Oscar Wilde (whom he was to meet in a London salon attended by W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw), John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold and John Buchan. Edmund expressed surprise at the last, who wrote The 39 Steps. What must he think about a more recent recipient, my acquaintance Robert Twigger, author of Angry White Pyjamas and Real Men Eat Puffer Fish?

Quoting from ‘crib notes’ kindly supplied by Edmund, “Binyon’s early poems were circulated in the distinguished private press productions of Charles Daniel, Provost of Worcester College. In 1907 he was one of the poets who provided texts for a notable Oxford event: the very large scale pageant, involving horses, boats, sham castles and a cast of hundreds. After the First World War he supported the Oxford Recitations organised by John Masefield at his Boars Hill home from 1923.

“In the year of his retirement as Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, in 1933, Binyon was made an honorary fellow of Trinity and, more importantly, was awarded an honorary D. Litt by the University. In May 1939 he had the distinction of delivering the prestigious Romanes Lectures in the Sheldonian Theatre, where he had recited Persephone 46 years before.

“And when he died in 1943, his funeral was in Trinity’s chapel.”

The centenary of For the Fallen is to be marked by the college soon. I will keep you posted over details.