H. W. Gretton Biography | Poet

H. W. (Harold William) Gretton (1914-1983) was a New Zealand poet, lyricist, writer, teacher, journalist, linguist, diarist and Second World War soldier. In New Zealand, Gretton’s tramping songs (popular between the 1950s and 1970s) are still well known today. His Second World War diary is also of note for its social history of military life, along with his soldier’s poem ‘Koru and Acanthus’.