H. C. McNeile

Soldier, Author

1888 – 1937

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Who was H. C. McNeile?

Cyril McNeile MC was a British soldier and author. Drawing on his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, he started writing short stories and getting them published in the Daily Mail. As serving officers in the British Army were not permitted to publish under their own names, he was given the pen name "Sapper" by Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the Daily Mail; the nickname was based on that of his regiment, the Royal Engineers.

After the war McNeile left the army and continued writing, although he changed from war stories to thrillers. In 1920 he published Bulldog Drummond, whose eponymous hero became his best-known creation. The character was based on McNeile himself, on his friend Gerard Fairlie and on English gentlemen generally. McNeile wrote ten Bulldog Drummond novels, as well as three plays and a screenplay.

McNeile interspersed his Drummond work with other novels and story collections that included two characters who appeared as protagonists in their own works, Jim Maitland and Ronald Standish. He was one of the most successful British popular authors of the inter-war period before his death in 1937 from throat cancer, which has been attributed to damage sustained from a gas attack in the war.

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Born
Sep 28, 1888
Bodmin
Also known as
  • Herman Cyril McNeile
  • Sapper
  • Cyril McNeile
  • H.C. 'Sapper' McNeile
  • H.C. McNeile
  • Herman Cyril McNeille
  • Herman C. McNeile
  • 'Sapper'
  • (Herman) Cyril McNeile
Parents
Spouses
Nationality
  • England
Profession
Education
  • Royal Military Academy
  • Cheltenham College
Died
Aug 14, 1937
Pulborough

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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