The poet (Frederick) Louis MacNeice (1907-63) was born in Belfast. At Marlborough School in 1921 he met Sir John Betjeman, Anthony Blunt and other life-long friends. He won a postmastership to Merton College, Oxford in 1926 and joined a circle of friends including W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender. After graduation he became a Lecturer in Classics at the University of Birmingham, and married Giovanna Ezra, step-daughter of Sir John Beazley. The marriage broke up in 1935, and MacNeice moved to London where he took up a Lectureship in Greek at Bedford College. Between 1941 and 1961 he worked for the BBC Features Department. His marriage to his second wife, Hedli Anderson, was dissolved in 1960. He died of virus pneumonia on 3 Sept. 1963. He published numerous volumes of poetry throughout his life, and several plays, including 'Christopher Columbus' and 'The Dark Tower'.