Ben Travers

Ben Travers was born in Hendon in 1886 and was sent to Charterhouse in the reign of Queen Victoria. His school career was a complete failure and was terminated, as he himself asserted, by mutual consent. In 1911 he found employment at the firm of John Lane, the publisher and founder of the Bodley Head. He wrote more than twenty plays, thirty screenplays, five novels, three volumes of memoirs and a book on cricket. During the 1914-18 war he was a Squadron Commander in the RNAS and RAF, and received the Air Force Cross, and in 1939 rejoined the RAF as Squadron Leader. He was also the Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, Vice President of Somerset County Cricket Club, and President of the Dramatists’ Club. In 1976 he was presented with a Special Standard Drama Award for his services to the Theatre, and he received the C.B.E. in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. He died in 1980.