Background
Starr was born in Prestbury House, Hampton, at Richmond in the County of Middlesex, England to well-to-do land owning parents ("landed proprietors") William Brooks Close and Mary Baker Brooks Close. When Starr was one year old his parents separated and he was raised by his mother.
Career
He received his education at Winchester College in Hampshire. He probably changed his name to Meredith Starr when he was twenty in relation to his work as a reviewer and contributor for The Occult Review. He also wrote for Aleister Crowley"s publication The Equinox, publishing Memory of Love (under the name "Herbert Close"), VII, 291 - Volume(s) 7, in 1911.
Starr disbanded the Devon retreat and sold the property a year and a half later.
He later organized "nature cure and scientific relaxation" courses at Frogmore Hall, Hertfordshire. He is buried in the Municipal Cemetery, Kirkley, Suffolk.
MEMORY OF LOVE
O DREAD Desire of Love! O lips and eyes! O image of the love that never dies,
But, federal by furtive fire, rages most
When Hope and Faith have been for ever lost! O oft-kissed lips and soul-remembered eyes,
O stricken heart -- the old love never dies! O Passion of dead lips that used to cling
To warm red living ones that breathed no pain! O Passion of dead hours that daily bring
To life some phantom pale that died in vain!..
Some echo tuned to Memory"s dying strain,
Some witness of the immemorial spring! — Meredith Starr (The Equinox).