R. C. Sherriff

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.

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.

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