Tony Celner M.B.E.

TONY BOY cropped    TONY YOUNG couple cropped     Tony old

Tony (I) Celner, an able linguist, was chosen to work for Intelligence Corps.  His role was to interrogate prisoners of war as they came off the battlefield.  As a young Lance Corporal in his early twenties, he entered the Eighth Army poetry competition.  His poem about the Battle of Alamein, ‘Battle Interlude,’ won first prize, presented by General Montgomery, and is the first poem in the book of poetry, ‘Poems from the Desert’.  Almost seventy years later, shortly before he died, Tony recited his poem on camera for the first and last time.

After the war, he worked for the GLC.  He dedicated much of his later life to helping people with mental health conditions and went on to become a manager at the National Schizophrenia Fellowship.

Click here to read ‘Battle Interlude.’

1 Comment on “Tony Celner M.B.E.

  1. I am thrilled to discover this website, having just bought a 1944 edition of the Poems from the Desert. Wonderful to get some news of the poets and to see I (Tony) Celner and read about his life after the war. What news of the other poets? 

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