Poet and writer. Born 83 Maryon Road, Charlton. Best known poem "The Listeners" ("Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door ....). Lived at: Bovill Road, Forest Hill (1877-86); 14 Thornsett Road, Anerley, (1912–25); Hill House, Taplow (1925–39); Montpelier Row (1940-56) where he died.
From 1890 for 18 years he worked in the statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil to support his family.
There are two plaques for him erected by Bromley Council, but oddly only the one in Mackenzie Road is included in their website.
Beckenham Heritage Group gives his (with his wife) addresses as follows: 1899-1906: 6 Lynton Terrace, now 195 Mackenzie Road, near his sister who had just moved in on the other side of the road; autumn 1906-07: in a ‘horrible little flat’ in Samos Road, Anerley; mid-summer 1907-12: Worbeck Road, Anerley (an unhealthy house); 1912-December 1924: 14 Thornsett Road (quiet and spacious)."
