Leo Walmsley

Leo Walmsley (1892 – 1966) was an English writer.[1]

Leo Walmsley

He was born at 7 Clifton Place, Shipley in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1892. Two years later, his family moved to Robin Hood's Bay on the coast of present-day North Yorkshire, where he was schooled at the old Wesleyan chapel and the Scarborough Municipal School. He was the son of the painter James Ulric Walmsley (1860-1954) who studied under Stanhope Forbes in Cornwall before settling in Robin Hood Bay.In 1912 the young Leo secured the post of curator-caretaker of the Robin Hood's Bay Marine Laboratory at five shillings a week.

During World War I he served as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps in East Africa, was mentioned in dispatches four times and was awarded the Military Cross. After a plane crash he was sent home, and eventually pursued a literary career. He settled at Pont Pill near Polruan in Cornwall, where he became friendly with the writer Daphne du Maurier.

He was married three times. He married Elsie Susanna Preston in 1919, divorcing her in 1932. Then, in 1933, he married Margaret Bell Little, divorcing her around 1946. His final marriage was to Stephanie Gubbins, in 1955.

Many of his books are mainly autobiographical, the best known being his Bramblewick series set in Robin Hood's Bay: Foreigners, Three Fevers, Phantom Lobster and Sally Lunn, the second of which was filmed as Turn of the Tide (1935).[2]

He died in Fowey, Cornwall, on 8 June 1966. The house he lived in at 21 Passage Street was named Bramblewick after his book series.[3]

Bibliography
  • 1914 – Guide to the Geology of Whitby and District – Horne (Whitby)
  • 1919 – Fossils of the Whitby District – Horne
  • 1920 – Flying and Sport in East Africa – Blackwood
  • 1921 – The Silver Blimp – Nelson
  • 1923 – The Lure of Thunder Island – Jenkins
  • 1926 – The Green Rocket – Jenkins
  • 1926 – Toro of the Little People – Hodder & Stoughton
  • 1932 – Three Fevers – Cape
  • 1933 – Phantom Lobster – Cape
  • 1935 – Foreigners – Collins
  • 1937 – Sally Lunn – Collins
  • 1939 – Love in the Sun – Collins
  • 1941 – Fishermen at War – Collins
  • 1942 – British Ports and Harbours – Collins
  • 1944 – So Many Loves (autobiography) – Collins
  • 1944 – Sally Lunn (the play) – Collins
  • 1946 – British Ports And Harbours (Britain in Pictures) -Collins
  • 1948 – Master Mariner – Collins
  • 1951 – Lancashire and Yorkshire – Collins
  • 1952 – Invisible Cargo – Joseph
  • 1954 – The Golden Waterwheel – Collins
  • 1957 – The Happy Ending – Collins
  • 1959 – Sound of the Sea – Collins
  • 1963 – Paradise Creek – Collins
  • 1965 – Angler's Moon – Hamilton

Biographies
  • 1944 – So Many Loves – Leo Walmsley (autobiography)
  • 1991 – The Honey Gatherers – Peter J. Woods
  • 1995 – Autumn Gold – Stephanie Walmsley (his widow)
  • 2001 – Shells and Bright Stones – Nona Stead (ed.)

References
  1. Graham Higson. "Leo Walmsley". walmsleysoc.org.
  2. "Turn of the Tide (1935)". BFI. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012.
  3. "Leo Walmsley, author, 1892 – 1966". foweyharbourheritage.co.uk.
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