William Matthew Scott (30 September 1893 – 7 May 1964), pen name Will Scott, was a British writer of stories and books for adults and children, published from 1920 to 1965. Towards the end of his life he was best known for The Cherrys series, written for children and published between 1952 and 1965. However, in earlier years he was known for his detective novels, his stage plays which were made into films, notably The Limping Man in 1931 and 1936, and for the 2,000 short stories that he contributed to magazines and newspapers; believed to be a record for the United Kingdom during his lifetime. As of 2011, his books were out of print.
Biography
Ancestry and youth Scott's ancestors were farm labourers, artisans and parish officers from Harewood, West Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire. They were related to Reverend Jacob Brettell, a poet, anti-Corn Laws agitator, and hymn-writer. Scott's father was William Scott, a joiner, born in Leeds in 1861. His mother was Eliza Anne (or Eliza Annie) Scott née Hibbard, formerly a dressmaker. In 1891 the couple were living alone at 4 Clayfield Street in the All Souls parish of north Leeds, and Eliza Anne was a tailoress. This street of Victorian back-to-backs ran between Cambridge Road and Ashfield Leather Works; the area is now a playing field. The tannery would have been odiferous during smog or to houses downwind of it; also the nearby Meanwood Beck had in those days a history of industrial pollution. This may be the reason why William and Eliza Anne Scott took over the tobacconist's from Samuel Cooper,Borough of Leeds Register of Electors 1893 Part 1; Central division polling district 7, no.7221; 128 Camp Road (house) Samuel CooperKelly: Leeds Street Directory 1893, p.82; 128 Camp Road, Cooper Samuel at 128 Camp Road, in 1893 and their son was born there.Whites: Leeds Street Directory 1894: 128 Camp Road, Scott William, tobacconist, p.690Borough of Leeds Ward Rolls 1893-4 Part 2, Brunswick Ward no.2 division; polling district 7: 1603 Scott William Clayfields Terrace dwelling house, 128 Camp Road – successive Camp Road was a terrace which fronted onto the pavement, with no gardens.
William Matthew Scott was born at 128 Camp Road (now Oatland Lane) in Little London, Leeds, Yorkshire on 30 September 1893. Camp Road was demolished in the 1960s. His place of birth was next to the poor Jewish immigrant area of tailors and shoemakers, called the Leylands, in the All Souls district of Leeds. At least until 1911 Scott lived in the working-class areas of Little London and Woodhouse, next to Meanwood Beck. The area has a history of poverty, and within living memory were the Woodhouse cholera epidemic of the 1840s, and the typhoid epidemic in nearby Headingley of 1889. When Scott was born, the middens and ashpits which had nurtured the diseases were being replaced by communal water closets. That meant that inhabitants of the back-to-backs had to walk to the end of the row to use the lavatory or empty a chamber pot but they would not catch cholera; communal outside lavatories and cobbled streets with washing lines overhead persisted while Scott lived there. However it should be remembered that street communities were strong, public transport was efficient and good quality education and libraries were available for working people. All the addresses at which Scott lived in his youth were demolished in the early 1960s slum clearances, to make way for new council estates, but many of these buildings were known to be repairable, so that "slum" was often a misnomer. Nevertheless, Scott's first recorded drawing was a chalk-drawn swan on the pavement outside his house when he was three years old, and his first published drawing was Poor Joe (1908) a drawing from life and an image of poverty.
The 1901 Census records W.M. Scott aged seven years with his parents and no siblings close to the tannery again at 20 Stonefield Terrace, in the All Souls parish of north Leeds, Yorkshire, and only four streets away from the Scotts' previous home in Clayfield Street. It was a four-room corner house in a back-to-back row on the corner with Cambridge Road. This was a street of back-to-back houses, but is now a row of trees on a playing field. In the 1911 Census he was aged 17 years, and he and his family had moved away from the tannery. He had no siblings and he was a lithographic artist apprentice, living with his parents in a back-to-back house at 49 Ganton Mount at Woodhouse, Leeds; the street is now rebuilt as modern houses. In 1911 his father was a journeyman joiner, and his mother a housewife. The 1911 census enumerator recorded that the house had eight rooms instead of the regular back-to-back four rooms, so number 49 must have been a larger corner house. Scott suffered from ill health during his youth. Initially he was not expected to survive beyond his seventh birthday, and he did not attend school regularly.
Adult life
Scott was unable to serve during the First World War due to poor health, and he was registered unfit for service. His health was graded C3, or permanently unfit for service, and although he was 6 feet tall, he weighed only 9 stone. In 1915 he married Lily Edmundson, in Leeds Register Office; she was a tailoress and the daughter of George Edmundson, a machine fitter in 1891 and electrical engineer in 1915. Scott was at that time an artist and caricaturist, living at 79 Buslingthorpe Lane, Leeds; his mother was one of the witnesses at the wedding. Following the wedding, the couple moved to London where Scott became known as a caricaturist. However Scott was not in good health, having suspected tuberculosis by 1918. They had two daughters: the first was Patricia Shirley, born at 1 Highfield Terrace, Golders Green when Scott described himself as a black and white artist. The second was Marjory Sylvia, born at St Edwards maternity home, Station Road, Herne Bay. At this point Scott was describing himself as a journalist and living at Roldale House, Selsea Avenue, Herne Bay.
Rents were lower in Herne Bay than in London, and the air was less smoky there. Scott suffered from "precarious" health, so he became a resident of Herne Bay, Kent from August 1920, and was familiar with the area by 1925 when he published Disher, Detective, which has his detective's assistant discovering a black stamp washed up at Hampton. In 1928 he was at St Minver Cottage in Salisbury Drive.Blue Book street directory 1929, at Canterbury Cathedral Archives From 1929 to 1932 he was living at Crown Hill Cottage, West Cliff Drive.Blue Book street directories 1930/31 and 1931/32, at Canterbury Cathedral Archives The actor, producer and Herne Bay resident Max Roma and Scott became friends, and they collaborated in amateur theatrical productions. From 1933 to 1935 he lived at The Old Cottage, a 17th-century listed building, at 125 Grand Drive.Blue Book street directories 1934 and 1935, at Canterbury Cathedral Archives From 1935 to the end of his life, he lived with his wife at Windermere in High View Avenue,Blue Book street directories 1936–38, at Canterbury Cathedral Archives Kelly's street directories 1939 and 1940 at Canterbury Cathedral Archives Electoral Rolls 1945–64 at Canterbury Cathedral Archives at the top of Westcliff overlooking Hampton-on-Sea. He was living there when he wrote Herne Bay Pageant in 1937, and all his children's books were written there from about 1951 to 1964. The surroundings of all his Kentish residences are reflected in the settings of his books: notably in Half-Term Trail, 1955, which was written at Windermere and is set in Herne Bay and Hampton. While he was living at Windermere he had grandchildren for whom he wrote The Cherrys series.
Scott was a "shy and private" person, said to have "shunned the limelight". However he contributed to the life of Herne Bay by directing its amateur dramatic society The Mask Players from 1930 to 1940. Steventon and Ford suggest that The Mask includes a veiled description of Scott, thus: "Thirty-five ... Clean-shaven. Horn-rimmed glasses. A successful author and poseur. A weakness for the limelight". However the latter "weakness" was his eagerness to sit in the wings in theatres and caricature the players, while at the same time shunning any spotlight on his own person. He wrote the 1939 Herne Bay Town Guide "in his own idiosyncratic way". He created an emblem for Herne Bay, showing its heron symbol, its clock tower, Reculver Towers and the sea. However the idyll of a holiday town far from London was interrupted by the Second World War. He was appointed as a fire point guard for his street, High View Avenue, and he wrote later that the town began to empty as residents left to serve their country.
Scott died of a stroke at Nunnery Fields Hospital, Canterbury, on 7 May 1964; his death certificate describes him as a journalist. He was cremated at Barham Crematorium on 12 May 1964; his ashes were scattered in the grounds there, and there is no headstone or memorial. The Thoresby Society has commented that, "his only memorial is his work". In 1998 the Herne Bay Gazette said, "Mr Scott was a true citizen of Herne Bay who had not received due recognition".
Career
It could be said that Scott's experiences of the art of entertainment and storytelling, when sneaking into theatres at age 10, was an early inspiration for his career. His drawing was influenced by theatrical posters, and by comics. He was only 14 years old when his first drawing was published. In due course the newspapers were using his work. According to Ford (2013), Scott is likely to have been an apprentice at Waddington's printing works in Leeds, and he designed posters there. His Times obituary says that he began in London as a caricaturist for the Performer magazine, drawing George Robey, Wilkie Bard, and Fred Kitchen from the film Old Mother Riley Overseas. However he was already working as a caricaturist in Leeds by 1915 when he was twenty-one, as shown on his marriage certificate. He was briefly the art editor of Pan magazine in London, but then moved to Herne Bay to become a full-time writer, while still describing himself as a journalist. The dust jacket of the first edition of The Cherrys series says: After being a cartoonist, an art critic, an art editor and a drama critic, Will Scott settled down as a fiction writer. He has written over 2,000 short stories, which is believed to be a record for this country. When his own daughters were small he wrote plays and books, all for grown ups. It was grandchildren who turned his thoughts to books for young readers. He says they are 'the greatest fun in the world'.
In his various works Scott used several pseudonyms such as "Anthony Grey" and "Wensley Smith", besides his more regular "Will Scott".
Herne Bay Guardian Among his other activities Scott was continuing as a journalist, as he reported in the census. In the 1920s he and fellow journalist Jim Gurling co-published the Herne Bay Guardian (or H.B. Guardian), an "alternative weekly newspaper". This publication was intended as a balance to the content of the Herne Bay Press newspaper, and as a vehicle for certain local opinions or campaigns. One project carried by the H.B. Guardian was a plea for a new Pier Theatre as a replacement for the existing 1884 wooden Pier Theatre, which was now inadequate in comparison with other, larger, local theatres. In the event, the old Pier Theatre burned down in 1928, and the H.B. Guardian supported a plan for a new theatre in the existing Pier Pavilion. However that plan failed, and the newspaper closed around 1929.
Artworks Among his other skills, Scott was a published caricaturist, and he created Herne Bay's emblem, including symbols of a heron, the sea, and the town's clock tower. For the 5th edition of Millgate's Handbook to Reculver, he designed its cover, and drew a vignette of the landmark for its title page.
Mask Players (The)