NEARLY 60 years after his death, Forest poet FW Harvey is to be commemorated by a stained glass window virtually overlooking his grave in St Peter’s Church, Minsterworth.

The window, designed by stained glass artist Graham Dowding, was commissioned by The F.W. Harvey Society.

Harvey, dubbed the ‘laureate of Gloucestershire’, was a prisoner of war in Germany during the First World War.

During this time he wrote some of his most enduring work, including Ducks - voted one of the nation’s 100 favourite poems in 1996 in a nationwide poll conducted by the BBC.

The F.W. Harvey Society was founded in 2010 to celebrate the memory of Will Harvey who grew up in Minsterworth and spent his last 30 years until 1957, in Yorkley.

He is buried with members of his family in the churchyard of St Peter’s church, Minsterworth.

The specialist stained glass artist is Gloucestershire-based Graham Dowding.

The window will be dedicated at an invitation only service at St Peter’s, which will include playing of The Last Post and Reveille.

Harvey has also been commemorated by a slate memorial tablet in the south transept of Gloucester Cathedral in 1980 and by the naming of a Harvey’s Lane in Yorkley.