Henry John Newbolt was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton (then in Staffordshire, but now in the West Midlands), son of the vicar of St Mary's Church, the Rev.

His contemporaries there included John McTaggart, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Roger Fry, William Birdwood, Francis Younghusband and Douglas Haig.

The Twymans: A Tale of Youth (1911) is a short work of fiction wherein Newbolt fleshes out the features of his own extraordinary education at Clifton.

One of the themes of the novel, as of Newbolt's preparation for college and for life, is indicated in this remark that a teacher makes to a "practical" parent inquiring about the school: "For information, you purchase a text-book; for education, you live in a society."

In 1914, Newbolt published Aladore, a fantasy novel about a bored but dutiful knight who abruptly abandons his estate and wealth to discover his heart's desire and woo a half-fae enchantress.

It describes how a schoolboy, a future soldier, learns selfless commitment to duty in cricket matches in the Close at Clifton College: The engagement mentioned in verse two is the Battle of Abu Klea in Sudan in January 1885 during the unsuccessful expedition to rescue General Gordon.

It established a canon, argued that English must become the linguistic and literary standard throughout the British Empire, and even proposed salary rates for lecturers.

In his home town of Bilston, a public house was named after him, and a blue plaque is displayed on Barclay's bank near the street where he was born.

[20] During an April 2018 episode of Steve Jones's radio show Jonesy's Jukebox, John Cooper Clarke revealed Newbolt as one of his early inspirations, reciting from memory a portion of Vitaï Lampada.