Laurence Binyon

Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) was an English poet, art historian, and museum curator. He worked at the British Museum, where he served in the Department of Prints and Drawings and became a leading authority on Asian art. Binyon wrote poetry, criticism, and studies of art, combining literary craft with scholarly expertise. He is best known for the World War I poem “For the Fallen” (1914), written in response to the early battles of the war; its fourth stanza includes the line “They shall grow not old,” widely used in remembrance services. He also produced translations and wrote on European and Japanese art.