James Lennox Kerr

James Lennox Kerr (1 July, 1899 - 11 March, 1963) was a Scottish socialist author noted for his children's stories written under the pseudonym of "Peter Dawlish". He had been living in Paisley in 1936, but moved to Sussex by 1937. He moved to Cornwall after the Second World War. He claimed to have served in the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy during World War I and World War II. He also claimed to have worked as a gold prospector in Australia and spent time exploring the United States of America. As an author he used the pseudonyms of "Douglas Gavin" while in Australia and "Peter Dawlish" in Great Britain.

Kerr was a self proclaimed socialist, but he was never a member of the Communist Party. He joined and then left the Labour Party.

Bibliography

As James L. Kerr

• Back Door Guest (1930)
• Glenshiels (1932)
• Woman of Glenshiels (1935) - this novel is particularly noted for his portrayal of a conscientious objector in the First World War who is pressured to enlist in the British Army and is killed in France.
• The Blackspit Smugglers – An Adventure Novel (1939)
• Peg Leg and the Fur Pirates (1939) - Kerr’s first children’s book.
• The Eager Years: An Autobiography (1940)
• The First Tripper (1947)
• Wavy Navy : by some who served (1950) - about the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. It was edited by Kerr and David James, and included a foreword by Lord Cunningham of Hyndhope.
• Touching the Adventures - Of Merchantmen in the Second World War (1953) - edited by Kerr. It featured a foreword by John Masefield.
• The Great Storm: being the authentic story of the loss at sea of the Princess Victoria and other vessels early in 1953 (1954)
• The Eye of the Earth (1955)
• Martin Frobisher (1956)
• The R.N.V.R.: A Record of Achievement (1957) - another book about the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. This time it was written by Kerr and Wilfred Granville. The book began with a foreword by G. Thistleton-Smith.
• Wilfred Grenfell, His Life and Work (1959) - a biography of Sir Wilfred Grenfell

As Peter Dawlish

The “Dauntless” Series is about the adventures of a group of five Cornish boys and their sailboat, an ex-French crabber. These adventures take place in the late 1940s to mid 1950s. Books in the series include:

• Dauntless Finds Her Crew
• Dauntless Sails Again
• Dauntless and the Mary Baines
• Dauntless Takes Recruits (1950)
• Dauntless Sails In
• Dauntless in Danger (1954)
• Dauntless and the Poplar Pirates
• Dauntless Goes Home (1960)

Other children’s books using the Dawlish pseudonym include:

• The Bagodia Episode (1953)
• Young Drake of Devon (1954)
• He Went with Drake (1955)
• Way for a Sailor (1955)
• North Sea Adventure (1956)
• Sailors All (1957)
• Aztec Gold (1958)
• The Race for Gowerie Bay (1959)
• Boy Jacko (1962)
• The Seas of Britain (1963)
• The Royal Navy (1963)
• Johnno, the Deep-Sea Diver, the Life Story of Diver Johnson as told to Peter Dawlish by John Johnstone - published after Dawlish’s death in 1965.
• Merchant Navy (1966).

References

• W. H. Marwick, "A Bibliography of Works on Scottish Economic History Published during the Last Twenty Years", Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1952), pp. 376-382 - comments on the role of Kerr in representing proletariat labourers in his novels.

Donate to Wikimedia