AS we continue to reflect on the Battle of the Somme, following the centenary commemoration, we remember the war poets and their poignant verse from the bloody fields of northern France.

But did you know that a Bradford poet, Alberta Vickridge, beat Wilfred Owen into second place in a national poetry competition?

In January 1918, Alberta entered a 'Poetry Review' with her poem, Out of Conflict, based on her experiences as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in Torquay from 1918 to 1918.

Alberta's work is highlighted by Colin Neville, who runs Not Just Hockney, a website showcasing local artists.

Alberta was born in Bradford on February 6, 1890, the daughter of Albert and Edith Vickridge. Albert was the son of a Methodist minister and had gone into the wool trade, joining his Uncle Isaac Lancaster’s firm in Bradford.

With his wife's inheritance, Albert set up in the wool trade, building up a lucrative business importing wool from Ireland.

The family lived in a terraced house on Bradford Road, Frizinghall, later moving to nearby Beamsley House. Alberta and her sisters went to Bradford Girls Grammar School. The oldest sibling, Alberta was imaginative and her literary talents were spotted by the headmistress, Miss Roberts, who played a significant role in her career.

In 1905, for her 14th birthday, Alberta’s father paid for the printing of a book of her work, The Luck of the Youngest and Other Pieces. It contained some of Alberta’s early poems and a play, introducing themes of myth and romantic legend, and the tension between loyalty, fidelity and deceit and betrayal that were to recur in her work.

At school Alberta was influenced by Greek Mythology and the work of Shelley and Shakespeare. She later went to Bradford Art School, but writing proved to be her main passion. She wrote poetry and articles for national and regional magazines and newspapers, and had poems reviewed in several publications.

By the time the war started in 1914, Alberta was editing a literary magazine. Her family spent the winter in Torquay, and it was there that she volunteered to join the VAD in 1917.

The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) Scheme provided volunteers to support the professional military nursing service. Alberta was a nurse at the Red Cross Town Hall Hospital in Torquay, where the young Agatha Christie also worked. The two women struck up a friendship.

"Badly wounded British soldiers from the campaigns in France, Flanders and Gallipoli began to arrive at the hospital, followed by wounded soldiers from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force," says Colin. "In September 1918, there was a serious outbreak of influenza nationwide and over 100 US servicemen died at another Torquay Hospital in just a fortnight.

"Alberta would have been at the centre of this activity and wrote two of her most anthologised poems about her nursing experiences; In a VAD Pantry and Out of Conflict, which she submitted to the Poetry Review, winning first prize, beating Wilfred Owen's Song of Songs into second place! Owen was killed in action later that year, days before the Armistice.

After the war Alberta stayed in Torquay and worked on a book of poetry, The Sea Gazer, containing war poems. She also wrote an extended poem, The Forsaken Princess which she submitted in 1924 to the Southern Counties Eisteddfod, at Torquay. It won, and Alberta is the only woman writer from Yorkshire to have gained a Bardic Chair and Crown.

Her reputation as a poet, both in Yorkshire and nationally, was established and she began work on her third book, The Mountain of Glass, published in 1926.

She made friends with a wide circle of other Yorkshire writers, including JB Priestley, who encouraged her writing. He and other local writers were invited to Beamsley House for literary discussions and poetry readings.

Alberta single-handedly ran a printing press from the attic of her home and, for 30 years until the 1950s she publish a literary magazine, The Jongleur, that featured work from leading poets of the day. She never married and became increasingly reclusive as she grew older.

In 1963, aged 73, Alberta died, and was buried with her parents at Nab Wood Cemetery. Her sisters, Marian and Hilda, lived until 1970 and 1985.

"Alberta had come from an affluent, sheltered home background so her war experience as a nurse, caring for badly wounded soldiers, was life-changing," says Colin. "It is perhaps no coincidence that she wrote her most anthologised and accessible poetry in the period during and immediately after the war."

Alberta had nine books of her poetry published in her lifetime, and won a Bard’s Crown and Bardic Chair at an Eisteddfod in 1924 for her extended poem, The Forsaken Princess. Her poetry was admired and praised by JB Priestley, Wilfred Gibson and Agatha Christie, who also worked with Alberta as a nurse at Torquay during the war.

* Visit alberta-vickridge.info and notjusthockney.info