Dorothy Grace Waring

She was born on 8 June 1891 at Hill Top, Shrewsbury Lane, Plumstead, London, the only child of Colonel Henry Waring (c.1863–1940), a Royal Artillery officer and later a farmer, and his wife, Florence Atthill Waring (died 1959).[1] She was educated at military schools in Malta and Gibraltar.[1]

During the Irish War of Independence, her father was an Ulster Special Constabulary (USC or "B-Specials") commander, and they lived at Lisnacree House near Kilkeel, County Down, which doubled as a USC post.[1] In September 1920, Lisnacree House was raided by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), looking for guns, and they were held hostage for some hours.[1] Afterwards there was a gunfight, but no one was killed.[1]

From 1922, complaints were received about Harnett's alleged over-zealous strip searching of women suspected of carrying weapons or messages on behalf of the IRA.[1] She was defended by Northern Ireland's minister of home affairs, but concerned that her actions might lead to local rioting, she was dismissed in March 1923.[1]

In the late 1920s, she joined the British Fascists (BF), was a close friend of the founder, Rotha Lintorn-Orman, and became a senior party member.[1] In May 1932, she became the editor of the party newspaper, and became the propaganda officer.[1] After the winding up of the BF she joined the pro-German The Link.[1]

In 1936, as D. Gainsborough Waring she published her first novel, Nothing Irredeemable, and 11 more would follow.[1] Much of her work was set in a "barely fictionalized south Down", involved the gentry, British intelligence officers, and the occult.[1]

On 15 April 1916, Waring married the army officer and barrister Edward St Clair Harnett (1881–1964). They had one son, Denis Henry Waring (1917–1964).[1] The marriage ended after some years, and her ex-husband remarried in 1927.[1]

In 1972, her home, Lisnacree House, was destroyed by arsonists.[1] She died on 25 April 1977 at Mourne Hospital, Kilkeel.[1]

• Nothing Irredeemable (John Long, London, 1936)[1]
• Fortune Must Follow (John Long, London, 1937)[2]
• Out of Evil (Cahill & Co, Dublin, 1937)[3]
• The Oldest Road (John Long, London,1938)[3]
• This New Corn (1940)
• And If I Laugh (1940)
• Against My Fire (John Long, London, 1941)[4]
• Hatred Therewith (1942)[5]
• Deep Malice (1944)
• Not Quite So Black (1948)