A p herbert biography

Alan was educated at The Grange preparatory school in Folkestone, before going on to Winchester College, then New College Oxford, where he eventually studied law.

In 1915, Alan married Gwendolyn Harriet Quilter, who he met in 1914 and they went on to have four children.  When war broke out, Alan joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman.  The RNVR formed part of the Royal Naval Division and Alan was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant before being posted to Hawke Battalion and sent to Gallipoli in May 1915.   He was taken ill and sent back to Britain to recuperate, after which he was seconded to Naval Intelligence.  

In July 1916, Alan returned to Hawke Battalion, which by then was serving on the Western Front on The Somme.  He took part in the Battle of the Ancre, from which he was one of only two officers to survive.   Alan became Adjutant of the Battalion and was badly wounded at Gavrell, near Arras, in April 1917 and had to be invalided home. His novel, “The Secret Battle”, drawing upon his experiences during the war, was published in 1919.  Alan’s younger brother, Owen Herbert went missing, presumed dead after the Battle of Mons in 1914 and his other brother, Sidney, was killed in 1941.

After the First World War, Alan was called to the Bar in 1919, joined the staff of ‘Punch’ magazine in 1924 and began writing plays.  He became an Independent MP in 1935 and was re-elected from 1945 – 1950 and was knighted in 1945.

During the Second World War, Alan volunteered with his boat ‘The Water Gypsy’ for the Ri

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Sir

Born

24 September 1890
Leatherhead, Surrey, England

Died

11 November 1971
London, England

Occupation

Politician, Writer and Writer of Inscription

English politician (1890–1971)

Sir Alan Patrick HerbertCH (known as A. P. Herbert; 24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and, from 1935 to 1950, an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University.

Born in Ashtead, Surrey, he attended Winchester College and New College, Oxford, receiving a starred first in jurisprudence in 1914. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a seaman in the First World War, becoming an officer in the Royal Naval Division. He fought in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, as a battalion adjutant in 1917, before injury removed him from the front line. After the war he published The Secret Battle and in 1924 joined the staff of Punch. As an MP he campaigned for private-member rights, piloted the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 through Parliament, opposed Entertainments Duty and campaigned against the Oxford Group. He joined the River Emergency Service in 1938, captaining a boat on the River Thames in the Second World War as a petty officer in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Patrol. In 1943, he joined a parliamentary commission on the future of the Dominion of Newfoundland.

Early life and education

Herbert was born at Ashtead Lodge, Ashtead, Surrey, on 24 September 1890. His father, Patrick Herbert Coghlan Herbert (1849–1915), was a civil servant (assistant secretary of the Judicial and Public Department) in the India Office, of Irish origin, and his mother, Beatrice Eugenie (née Selwyn), was the daughter of Sir Charles Jasper Selwyn, a Lord Justice of Appeal. His two younger brothers both died in battle: Owen William Eugene, Second lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery, killed at Mons in 1914, and Sidney Jasper, CaptainR.N., killed 1941 aboard HMS Hood. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was eight, shortly before he left for The Grange in Folkestone, a preparatory school.^&#

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(1890–1971), (Alan Patrick Herbert), The Secret Battle, Misleading Cases in the Common Law, Punch, Holy Deadlock

Additional topics

Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern FictionEncyclopedia of Literature: William Hart-Smith Biography to Sir John [Frederick William] Herschel Biography