Robert Cedric Sherriff, FSA, FRSL (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 an army officer in the First World War. He wrote several plays, many novels, and multiple screenplays, and was nominated for an Academy Award and two BAFTA awards.
Early life Sherriff was born in Hampton Wick, Middlesex, to insurance clerk Herbert Hankin Sherriff and Constance Winder. He was educated at Kingston Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames from 1905 to 1913. 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 First World War, taking part in the fighting at Vimy Ridge and Loos. He was severely wounded at Passchendaele near Ypres in 1917.
Post-war period After recovering from his wounds, Sherriff worked as an insurance adjuster from 1918 to 1928 at Sun Insurance Company, London.
Sherriff read history 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 Sherriff wrote his first play to help Kingston Rowing Club raise money to buy a new boat. 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. It was published in 1929 and was based on his experiences in the war. 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. In the audience was Maurice Browne who produced it at the Savoy Theatre where it was performed for two years from 1929. 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.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
Novelist A novelised version of Journey's End, co-written with Vernon Bartlett, was published in 1930.
The Fortnight in September, Sherriff's first true novel of 1931, describes a Bognor holiday enjoyed by a lower-middle-class family from Dulwich. 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. He described it as "just about the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of right now".
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.
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. 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.Brian Aldiss. Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction (1972)
Award nominations Sherriff was nominated along with Eric Maschwitz and Claudine West for an Academy Award for Best 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.
Work
Plays 1921: A Hitch in the Proceedings 1922: The Woods of Meadowside 1923: Profit and Loss 1924: Cornlow-in-the-Downs 1925: The Feudal System 1926: Mr. Bridie's Finger 1928: Journey's End 1930: Badger's Green 1933: Windfall 1934: Two Hearts Doubled 1936: St Helena 1948: Miss Mabel 1950: Home at Seven 1953: The White Carnation 1955: The Long Sunset 1957: The Telescope 1960: A Shred of Evidence (or The Strip of Steel)
Film scripts 1933: The Invisible Man 1934: One More River 1937: The Road Back 1939: Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1939: The Four Feathers 1941: That Hamilton Woman 1942: This Above All 1942: Stand by for Action 1947: Odd Man Out 1948: Quartet 1950: Trio 1950: No Highway in the Sky 1955: The Dam Busters 1955: The Night My Number Came Up 1955: Cards with Uncle Tom (TV) 1963: The Ogburn Story (TV)
Novels 1930: Journey's End: A Novel (with Vernon Bartlett) 1931: The Fortnight in September 1936: Greengates 1939: The Hopkins Manuscript 1944: Chedworth: A Novel 1948: Another Year: A Novel
Other works 1954: King John's Treasure 1962: The Wells of St. Mary's 1973: The Siege of Swayne Castle 1968: No Leading Lady: An Autobiography
See also List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain
Notes and references
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Sherriff's literary agents
The Man from Esher and his Theatre of War