Biography of R.C. Sherriff: the playwright of Journey's End, by Roland Wales

'From Journey's End to the Dam Busters: The Life of R.C. Sherriff, Playwright of the Trenches' - An Extract Robert Cedric Sherriff

Born in 1896, R C Sherriff came to fame with his World War 1 drama Journey’s End. From its very first performance in 1928, it was a huge success, celebrated as the War’s most vivid and realistic depiction ever. The play was based on his own experiences as a young officer on the Western Front:. He had initially joined the Artists’ Rifles before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the East Surreys in September 1916. A few weeks later he arrived in France, and was quickly embroiled in the trench warfare which he hated.

The play’s financial success allowed Sherriff to become a full-time writer. Although his next play (Badger’s Green) was a critical success, it failed to draw the crowds so he tried his hand at a novel instead. The result - Fortnight in September (1931) - was popular with critics and public alike, and, according to one reviewer, contained ‘more human goodness and understanding than anything I have read in years’. Two other novels followed in the next few years - Greengates (1936) and The Hopkins Manuscript (1939) - and all three offer a vivid glimpse of middle class emotions and experiences during the 1930s.

In 1932 he embarked on the screenwriting career that would keep him in the public eye to the 1960s. His friend James Whale, who had directed Journey’s End, invited him to work for Universal Studios in Hollywood (where Whale had just made Frankenstein), and after a huge success with The Invisible Man (1934), Sherriff’s scriptwriting was in great demand. He worked for most of the big studios (MGM, Fox, Warners), and despite tussles with the censors (and with the Nazis), he was able to produce movies as memorable as Goodbye Mr Chips (1939), the Four Feathers (1939), Lady Hamilton (1941 - reputedly Churchill’s favourite movie), Odd Man Out (1947) and many others, including his most famous - The Dam Busters (1955), where he was commended by one critic for finding ‘the right dramatic dialogue for the men of 1939-45, as well as those of 1914-1918’.

Despite his successful films and novels, the stage was his first love, and, although another Journey’s End eluded him, his plays were invariably well-constructed and absorbing, and often very funny. Some of them were set in familiar middle-class settings (Miss Mabel (1948), Home at Seven (1950) and White Carnation (1953)), but others, inspired by his love of history, wandered further afield - to Napoleon’s exile, for example (St Helena (1936)) or Roman Britain (The Long Sunset (1955)). His 1957 play, The Telescope, focused on the problems of juvenile delinquency, and caused quite a stir with its language.
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The success of Journey’s End allowed Sherriff to buy Rosebriars, a large house in Esher with extensive gardens which were his pride and joy. He moved there with his mother in 1930, and lived there until he died in 1975. Never married, he left the royalties from his work to be shared between The Scout Association, and his old school, Kingston Grammar. The proceeds from the sale of his beloved Rosebriars meanwhile, provides the funds for the R C Sherriff Trust in its mission to promote the arts in Elmbridge, a cause of which he would wholeheartedly approve. 
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Here's a link to the full biography: www.amazon.co.uk/Journeys-End-Dam-Busters-Playwright/dp/1473860695

Roland Wales

Roland Wales worked as an economist at the Bank of England for many years, and then as Policy Director at the Labour Party. He became interested in R.C. Sherriff when his two sons attended Sherriffs old school, Kingston Grammar, and he became Chair of the parents support group for rowing the Sherriff Club. He produced several Sherriff-themed theatrical nights, and worked closely with the Surrey History Centre in their successful bid for Heritage Lottery Fund support of the Sherriff Archive, including writing a well reviewed play, How Like It All Is, examining the links between Sherriffs wartime experiences and his subsequent work..