Growing up in Glenelg, South Australia, Charles Jury was educated at Glenelg Grammar School and St Peter's College. He wrote verse from the age of seven, and his first collection of poetry was published when he was twelve years old. He began studies at Oxford University in 1913. He enlisted as soon as he turned eighteen, but was severely wounded in 1915 and was never again fit for military service. He resumed his studies at Oxford in 1916, completing his BA. He eventually took his MA in 1923.
Jury returned to Adelaide in 1918, and his father established him with independent means. He worked hard at his writing, and founded a poetry club in Adelaide, but he missed the stimulus of life in England and from then until 1938 lived sometimes in Australia and sometimes in England and Europe.
During the Second World War he joined an Intelligence Unit, where his language skills were of value. After the war he took up the Chair of English (which had been endowed by his mother in memory of her husband) at Adelaide University, and held the position from 1946-1949. He then retired to live in North Adelaide and continue his writing. From December 1953 to January 1956 he wrote a weekly essay for The Advertiser.
A passionate lover of Greek thought and mythology, Jury made no attempt to follow modern fashions in writing. He wrote mainly on classical themes, often writing in dramatic form, in verse which was controlled and polished. A number of his poems and two of his plays were re-worked and re-written over the years.
Although he spent a lot of time living overseas, he considered Adelaide his home. He exerted a considerable influence on the cultural life of Adelaide, recognising and generously encouraging literary and artistic talent.
