R. C. Sherriff

R. C. Sherriff
Born Robert Cedric Sherriff 6 June 1896(1896-06-06) Hampton Wick, Middlesex, England Died 13 November 1975 (aged 79) Kingston upon Thames, England Occupation playwright and screenwriter Nationality United Kingdom
Information
Period	early 1900s
Magnum opus	Journey's End

Robert Cedric Sherriff (6 June 1896 – 13 November 1975) was an English writer best known for his play Journey's End which was based on his experiences as a captain in World War I. He wrote several plays, novels, and screenplays, and was nominated for an Academy award and two BAFTA awards.

Early life

Sherriff was born in Hampton Wick, Middlesex, the only child of Herbert Hankin Sherriff, insurance clerk, and Constance Winder, daughter of Charles Winder, of Iver, Buckinghamshire.^[1] Educated at Kingston Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames, he worked in an insurance office as a clerk (from 1914) and as an insurance adjuster (1918 to 1928) at Sun Insurance Company, London. Sherriff served (1915 to 1918) as a captain in the 9th East Surrey Regiment in World War I, serving at Vimy and Loos. He was severely wounded at Passchendaele near Ypres in 1917.^[2] He was awarded the Military Cross during the war.^[1]

Sherriff studied at New College, Oxford from 1931 to 1934. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Career

Playwright

He first wrote a play to help Kingston Rowing Club raise money to buy a new boat. His seventh play, Journey's End, was written in 1928 and published in 1929 and was based on his experiences in the war. It was performed twice, first on 9 December 1928, by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Apollo Theatre, directed by James Whale and with the 21-year-old Laurence Olivier in the lead role. In the audience was Maurice Browne who produced it at the Savoy Theatre where it was performed for two years from 1929.

Novelist

Sherriff also wrote prose. His own novelised version of Journey's End was published in 1929. His 1939 novel, The Hopkins Manuscript is a HG Wells-influenced post-apocalyptic story about an earth devastated because of a collision with the Moon. Its sober language and realistic depiction of an average man coming to terms with a ruined England is said to have been an influence on later science fiction authors such as John Wyndham and Brian Aldiss.

Award nominations

Sherriff was nominated along with Eric Maschwitz and Claudine West for an Academy award for writing an adapted screenplay for Goodbye, Mr. Chips which was released in 1939. His 1955 screenplays, The Dam Busters and The Night My Number Came Up were nominated for best British screenplay BAFTA awards.^[3]

Work

Bibliography

• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1930). Journey's End: A Novel (First edition ed.). London: Gollancz. OCLC 4072239. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1931). The Fortnight in September (First edition ed.). OCLC 246884057. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1939). The Hopkins Manuscript (First edition ed.). OCLC 2212270.  (Reprinted in 2005 by Persephone Books)
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1944). Chedworth: A Novel (First edition ed.). OCLC 761913. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1948). Another Year: A Novel (First edition ed.). OCLC 1455916. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1954). King John's Treasure (First edition ed.). OCLC 31122994. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1962). The Wells of St. Mary's (First edition ed.). OCLC 7185868. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1973). The Siege of Swayne Castle (First edition ed.). ISBN 0575017228. 
• Sherriff, Robert Cedric (1968). No Leading Lady: An Autobiography (First edition ed.). London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. p. 33. ISBN 0575001550. 

References

External links

• R. C. Sherriff at the Internet Broadway Database
• R. C. Sherriff at the Internet Movie Database
• The Man from Esher and his Theatre of War