Dan Billany (14 November 1913 – disappeared 20 November 1943) was an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Biography

Billany was born and raised in Hull. He joined the

Labour League of Youth Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and later the Hull Branch of the

Socialist Party of Great Britain The Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), it advocates using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes and oppos ...

, but was expelled from the latter in 1933 for his involvement in an internal dispute. He later joined the

National Unemployed Workers' Movement The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 G ...

. Billany received a degree in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

from the University College of Hull in 1937. His career in teaching was interrupted by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; Billany joined the army in 1940 and became an officer as lieutenant in the 4th battalion of the

East Yorkshire Regiment The East Yorkshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1685 as Sir William Clifton's Regiment of Foot and later renamed the 15th Regiment of Foot. It saw service for three centuries, before eventually being ...

.CWGC casualty record, Cassino Memorial
He was captured by the Germans and spent June 1942 till September 1943 as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

in Italy. Throughout the war off duty, Billany concentrated on his writing. '' The Opera House Murders'', a thriller, and ''

The Magic Door ''The Magic Door'' (also known as ''The Magic Door Television Theatre'') was a Jewish educational television series, aimed at providing kiruv (outreach) to Jewish children in the Chicago metropolitan area but intended to appeal to all children ...

'', a book for boys, were published in 1940 and 1943, respectively. After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, Billany fled to the countryside with his manuscripts, working on them for weeks while hiding from the German army. He deposited them with a friendly local who promised to post them to Britain at the conclusion of the war. These manuscripts, ''The Cage'' and ''The Trap'', were received by Billany's family in 1946 and eventually published to wide acclaim. In ''Dockers and Detectives'', Ken Worpole lauded ''The Trap'' as "the finest novel to come out of the war".

Disappearance

In October 1943, Billany and three friends began to make their way over the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

towards the Allied forces. They were last seen in

Capistrello Capistrello is a ''comune'' and town in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central-southern Italy. It is located at the border between the upper Liri River valley and the Marsica. Capistrello borders the following municipalities: Ave ...

on 20 November 1943, and presumably died in the mountains a few days later. Lieutenant Dan Billany is listed on the

Commonwealth War Grave Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

Cassino Memorial Cassino () is a ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Southern Italy, at the southern end of the region of Lazio, the last city of the Latin Valley. Cassino is located at the foot of Monte Cairo near the confluence of the Gari and Liri river ...

, to Commonwealth military personnel who have no known

grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

, as having died on 1 January 1944.

Bibliography

Novels

*'' The Opera House Murders'' (1940; published in 1941 in the United States under the title ''It Takes a Thief'') *''

'' (1943) *''The Cage (novel)'' (with David Dowie) (1949) *'' The Trap'' (1950) * The Whispering (1942) published 2008

References

External links