View source for R. C. Sherriff

{{Short description|English writer (1896–1975)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = R. C. Sherriff
| image            = R. C. Sherriff.jpg
| birth_name       = Robert Cedric Sherriff
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1896|6|6|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Hampton Wick]], [[Middlesex]], England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1975|11|13|1896|6|6|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Kingston upon Thames]], England
| occupation       = [[Playwright]] and [[screenwriter]]
| nationality      = British
| period           = 1920s to 1960s
}}
'''Robert Cedric Sherriff''', [[Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries|FSA]], [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature|FRSL]] (6 June 1896 – 13 November 1975)<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Antiquaries Journal|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1976|title=Robert Cedric Sherriff |page=363}}</ref> was an [[English people|English]] writer best known for his play ''[[Journey's End]]'',<ref name="Stevens">{{cite book	
|last= Stevens	
|first= Christopher
|title= Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams
|publisher= John Murray
|year= 2010
|isbn = 978-1-84854-195-5
|page=264
}}</ref> which was based on his experiences as an army officer in the First World War.<ref name=britannica/> He wrote several plays, many novels, and multiple screenplays, and was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Academy Award]] and two [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA awards]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb176-2332|title=R. C. Sherriff (1896-1975), Dramatist and Novelist: Correspondence and Papers |website=Jisc Archives Hub}}</ref>

==Early life==
Sherriff was born in [[Hampton Wick]], [[Middlesex]], to insurance clerk Herbert Hankin Sherriff and Constance Winder.<ref name="ukpro"/> He was educated at [[Kingston Grammar School]] in [[Kingston upon Thames]] from 1905 to 1913.{{#tag:ref| Sherriff maintained close links with the school for the rest of his life. He sent a copy of ''Journey's End'' to the headmaster after the play was first performed in 1928, and was a generous benefactor to the school until his death, paying particularly close attention to the school rowing club, whose supporters' club now bears his name. He financed a number of boats named after his plays (''Journey's End'', ''White Carnation'', ''Home at Seven'', ''Long Sunset'' and ''Badger's Green''). He also purchased a piece of land at the end of Aragon Avenue in [[Thames Ditton]] for the purpose of building a school boathouse,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sherriffclub.org/boathousehistory.html|title=Boathouse history|publisher=KGS Sherriff Club |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227194922/http://www.sherriffclub.org/boathousehistory.html |archivedate=27 February 2018}}</ref> which was completed in 1980. |group= n}} After he left school, Sherriff began working at an [[insurance]] office as a clerk in 1914.

==Military service==
Sherriff served as an officer in the 9th battalion of the [[East Surrey Regiment]] in the [[World War I|First World War]], taking part in the fighting at [[Battle of Vimy Ridge|Vimy Ridge]] and [[battle of Loos|Loos]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/259375/Sadness-that-forever-lies-at-Journey-s-End|title=Sadness that forever lies at Journey's End|first=Jane|last=Clinton|date=17 July 2011 |work=Daily Express}}</ref> He was severely wounded at [[Passendale|Passchendaele]] near [[Ypres]] in 1917.<ref name="sherriff1968pp14,22">{{cite book |last1=Sherriff |first1=R. C. |title=No Leading Lady: An Autobiography |date=1968 |publisher=Gollancz |location=London |isbn=0-575-00155-0 |pages=14, 22}}</ref>

==Post-war period==
After recovering from his wounds, Sherriff worked as an insurance adjuster from 1918 to 1928 at [[Sun Life Financial|Sun Insurance Company]], London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.php?aid=310&cid=7&ctid=1|website=Twickenham Museum |title=R. C. Sherriff}}</ref> 

Sherriff read history at [[New College, Oxford]], from 1931 to 1934.<ref>{{cite odnb|first=J. C. |last=Trewin |id=31678 |title=Sherriff, Robert Cedric}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/writers/sherriff/|title=RC Sherriff (1896 - 1975) |website=Exploring Surrey's Past}}</ref> He was a fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] and the [[Society of Antiquaries of London]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hwremembers.org.uk/rcsherriff/rcsherriff.php|title=R. C. Sherriff|website=Hampton Wick Remembers}}</ref>

==Career==

===Playwright===
Sherriff wrote his first play to help [[Kingston Rowing Club]] raise money to buy a new boat.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/sherriff-blog-11/|title=The road to Journey's End...A Hitch in the Proceedings and other early plays by R C Sherriff |website=Exploring Surrey's Past|date=21 November 2014}}</ref> Sherriff started writing his seventh play, ''[[Journey's End]]'', probably his most  famous, during the summer of 1927  in one of the railway carriage bungalows at [[Selsey]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wales |first1=Roland |title=From Journey's End to the Dam Busters: The life of R.C. Sherriff, Playwright of the Trenches |year=2016 |publisher=Pen & Sword |location=Barnsley |isbn=978-1-47386-069-8|page=79}}</ref> It was published in 1929 and was based on his experiences in the war.<ref name=britannica>{{Britannica|540148|R.C. Sherriff}}</ref> It was given a single Sunday performance, 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/30f/journeys-end/production/mj4|title=Journey's End - Apollo Theatre 1928 Production |website=Theatricalia}}</ref> In the audience was [[Maurice Browne]] who produced it at the [[Savoy Theatre]] where it was performed for two years from 1929.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/30f/journeys-end/production/6rw|title=Journey's End - Savoy Theatre 1928/9 Production|website=Theatricalia}}</ref> The play was hugely successful and there was wide press coverage which reveals how audience responses provoked by this play shaped understanding of the First World War in the interwar years.<ref>Purkis, Charlotte (2016) 'The Mediation of Constructions of Pacifism in Journey's End and The Searcher, two Contrasting Dramatic Memorials from the Late 1920s' https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2015.1135753</ref>

===Novelist===
A novelised version of ''Journey's End'', co-written with [[Vernon Bartlett]], was published in 1930.<ref>{{cite book|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries. New Series: 1930|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CKUhAQAAIAAJ|year=1931|publisher=Copyright Office, Library of Congress|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CKUhAQAAIAAJ/page/n18 1]}}</ref> 

''[[The Fortnight in September]]'', Sherriff's first true novel of 1931, describes a [[Bognor Regis|Bognor]] holiday enjoyed by a lower-middle-class family from [[Dulwich]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Fortnight in September |url=http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/the-fortnight-in-september.html |website=Persephone Books}}</ref> It was nominated by [[Kazuo Ishiguro]] as a book to 'inspire, uplift and offer escape' in a 2020 list compiled by ''[[The Guardian]]'' during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom|COVID-19 pandemic]]. He described it as "just about the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of right now".<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 May 2020 |title=Novelists pick books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/05/novelists-pick-books-to-inspire-uplift-and-offer-escape |access-date=2020-10-04 |work=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

Sherriff's 1936 novel ''Greengates'' is a realistic novel about a middle-aged couple, Tom and Edith Baldwin, moving from an established London suburb into the new suburbs of [[Metro-land]].<ref>{{cite web |date=3 December 2016 |title=Greengates by R. C. Sherriff |url=https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/greengates-by-r-c-sherriff/ |website=Book Snob}}</ref>

His 1939 novel, ''[[The Hopkins Manuscript]]'' is an [[H. G. Wells]]-influenced post-apocalyptic story about an earth devastated after a collision with the Moon.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6133642/Endpaper.html|title=Endpaper|first=Claudia|last=FitzHerbert|date=5 September 2009|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref> 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]].<ref>Brian Aldiss. ''Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction'' (1972)</ref>

==Award nominations==
Sherriff was nominated along with [[Eric Maschwitz]] and [[Claudine West]] for an [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Academy award for writing an adapted screenplay]] for ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)|Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'' which was released in 1939.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/rc-sherriff-p164845/awards|title=R.C. Sherriff - Movie and Film Awards|website=AllMovie}}</ref> His 1955 screenplays, ''[[The Dam Busters (film)|The Dam Busters]]'' and ''[[The Night My Number Came Up]]'' were nominated for best British screenplay [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA award]]s.<ref name="glancy2008" />

==Work==

===Plays===
*1921: ''[[A Hitch in the Proceedings]]''
*1922: ''[[The Woods of Meadowside]]''
*1923: ''[[Profit and Loss (play)|Profit and Loss]]''
*1924: ''[[Cornlow-in-the-Downs]]''
*1925: ''The Feudal System''
*1926: ''[[Mr. Bridie's Finger]]''
*1928: ''[[Journey's End]]'' - the 2007 Broadway revival won the [[Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play]] and the [[Drama Desk Award]] for Outstanding Revival of a Play
*1930: ''[[Badger's Green (play)|Badger's Green]]''
*1933: ''[[Windfall (play)|Windfall]]''
*1934: ''[[Two Hearts Doubled]]''
*1936: ''[[St Helena (play)|St Helena]]''
*1948: ''[[Miss Mabel]]''
*1950: ''[[Home at Seven (play)|Home at Seven]]''
*1953: ''[[The White Carnation]]''
*1955: ''[[The Long Sunset (play)|The Long Sunset]]''
*1957: ''The Telescope''
*1960: ''A Shred of Evidence (or The Strip of Steel)''

===Film scripts===
*1919: ''[[The Toilers (1919 film)|The Toilers]]''
*1933: ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]''
*1934: ''[[One More River]]''
*1937: ''[[The Road Back (film)|The Road Back]]''
*1939: ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)|Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'' – nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay]] along with his co-writers [[Claudine West]], [[Eric Maschwitz]]
*1939: ''[[The Four Feathers (1939 film)|The Four Feathers]]''
*1941: ''[[That Hamilton Woman]]''
*1942: ''[[This Above All (film)|This Above All]]''
*1942: ''[[Stand by for Action]]'' 
*1947: ''[[Odd Man Out]]''
*1948: ''[[Quartet (1948 film)|Quartet]]''
*1950: ''[[Trio (1950 film)|Trio]]''
*1950: ''[[No Highway in the Sky]]''
*1955: ''[[The Dam Busters (film)|The Dam Busters]]'' – nominated for the [[BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay]]
*1955: ''[[The Night My Number Came Up]]'' – nominated for the [[BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay]] (NB: both films were nominated for the 1955 BAFTA awards.)
*1955:	''Cards with Uncle Tom'' (TV)
*1963: ''The Ogburn Story'' (TV)

===Books===
*{{Cite book
|title=Journey's End: A Novel (with [[Vernon Bartlett]])
|location=London
|publisher=Gollancz
|year=1930
|oclc=4072239}}
*{{Cite book |title=[[The Fortnight in September]] |year=1931 |oclc=246884057}} (Reprinted in 2006 by [[Persephone Books]]); {{cite book|title=2021 pbk reprint|date=7 September 2021 |publisher=Scribner|isbn=978-1-9821-8478-0}}
*{{Cite book
|title=Greengates
|publisher=Victor Gollancz
|year=1936
|oclc=2228475}} (Reprinted in 2015 by [[Persephone Books]])
*{{Cite book
|title=[[The Hopkins Manuscript]]
|publisher=Victor Gollancz
|year=1939
|oclc=2212270}} (Revised and reissued as a Pan Paperback in 1958 under the title ''The Cataclysm''; Reprinted in 2005 by [[Persephone Books]] under its original title.)
*{{Cite book
|title=Chedworth: A Novel
|year=1944
|lccn=44008653
|oclc=761913}}
*{{Cite book
|title=Another Year: A Novel
|year=1948
|lccn=48006451
|oclc=1455916}}
*{{Cite book
|title=King John's Treasure
|year=1954
|oclc=31122994}}
*{{Cite book
|title=The Wells of St. Mary's
|year=1962
|isbn= 0091174406
|oclc=7185868
|publisher=Heinemann
}}
*{{Cite book
|title=The Siege of Swayne Castle
|year=1973
|publisher=Gollancz
}}
*{{Cite book
|title=No Leading Lady: An Autobiography
|location=London
|publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd
|year=1968
|isbn=0-575-00155-0}}

==Notes and references==

===Notes===
{{reflist|group= n}}

===References===
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="glancy2008">{{Cite web
|last=Glancy
|first=H. M.
|title=Writers and Production Artists: R. C. Sherriff
|url=http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Sh-Sy/Sherriff-R-C.html
|work=film reference
|year=2008}}</ref>
<ref name="ukpro">UK Public Records Office, BDM Certificates {{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last1=Wales |first1=Roland |title=From Journey's End to the Dam Busters: The life of R.C. Sherriff, Playwright of the Trenches |year=2016 |publisher=Pen & Sword |location=Barnsley |isbn=978-1473860698}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{cite web |title=R C Sherriff...and More |url=http://www.rolandwales.com/}}
*[http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/r-c-sherriff/ Sherriff's literary agents]
*{{IBDB name}}
*{{IMDb name|792670}}
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/pip/ayrei/ The Man from Esher and his Theatre of War]
*{{cite web |url=https://heartheboatsing.com/2020/11/30/r-c-sherriff-soldier-writer-and-oarsman-part-i/ |title=R.C. Sherriff: Soldier, Writer and Oarsman – Part I |website=Hear the Boat Sing|date=30 November 2020 }}
*{{cite web |url=https://heartheboatsing.com/2020/12/01/r-c-sherriff-soldier-writer-and-oarsman-part-ii/ |title=R.C. Sherriff: Soldier, Writer and Oarsman – Part II |website=Hear the Boat Sing|date=December 2020 }}
{{R.C. Sherriff}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherriff, R. C.}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:East Surrey Regiment officers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames]]
[[Category:English male screenwriters]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:People from Kingston upon Thames]]
[[Category:War writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:People educated at Kingston Grammar School]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Artists' Rifles soldiers]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English screenwriters]]
[[Category:Territorial Force soldiers]]