Patrick Houston Shaw-Stewart (17 August 1888 – 30 December 1917) was a British scholar and poet of the Edwardian era who died on active service as a battalion commander in the Royal Naval Division during the First World War.

While Patrick was still young his parents' marriage broke down and he was largely raised by a nanny, whom he habitually referred to as "dear".

His appearance was quite striking with a shock of bright ginger hair, pale white freckled skin, and a lengthy nose.

At this time he became devoted to Lady Diana Manners and wrote her many intimate letters full of erotic allusions to Greek and Latin literature, though it proved to be a case of unrequited love, as Manners was devoted to Raymond Asquith, and after his death married Duff Cooper.

He was shaken by his prominent role in the young poet's funeral in Greece: "The brilliant and beguiling youth who had never failed in anything, for whom all life's prizes seemed to wait his taking, had little wish to outlive his friends.

His letters home to friends and relations showed an increasing sense of frustration and disillusionment with the war.

[4] During 1917, Shaw-Stewart increasingly felt that he was doing very little of any use in Salonika and was missing the comradeship of his friends in the Royal Naval Division.

It was written while Shaw-Stewart waited to be sent to fight at Gallipoli and was on leave on the island of Imbros, overlooking Hisarlik (the site of the ancient city of Troy), and in the poem, Shaw-Stewart makes numerous references to the Iliad, questioning, "Was it so hard, Achilles,/So very hard to die?"