Geoffrey Prout (1894-1960) (pseudonym Roland Spencer) was an English boat builder, soldier, and author. From the 1910s to 1960s Prout wrote non-fiction boating works and juvenile

adventure fiction Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of Romance (prose fiction)#Definition, romance fiction. History In t ...

Early life

Prout was born in

Saxilby Saxilby is a large village in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, about north-west from Lincoln, on the A57 road at the junction of the B1241. It is part of the civil parish of Saxilby and Ingleby, which includes the village of ...

in 1894 to Anne Isabel and William Henry Prout, a customs officer and Devonshire native,Devonshire, England and Wales Census, 1911 (accessible on familysearch.com) and Geoffrey Prout spent at least part of his youth in Plymouth By 1911 Prout was working for an auctioneer in Plymouth, and he began publishing extensively in '' The Boy’s Own Paper'' regarding boating related topics and then in various other publications. Prior to World War I he "had six years' experience of cruising round the South Coast."''The Boy's Own Annual'' v. 40 1917-18, p. 325 During World War I Prout joined the

Devonshire Regiment The Devonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that served under various titles and served in many wars and conflicts from 1685 to 1958, such as the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. In 1958 ...

in 1914 and trained at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

before being sent to France where he saw major action over several years at Loos, Somme, and

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

. While recovering from war injuries at a French hospital in London he met and married a Swiss woman, Marguerite Louise Grandpierre in 1919. They had two sons and in 1922 the family moved via motorcycle and

sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. ...

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

where they built a bungalow on the Point made partially of

driftwood __NOTOC__ Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river by the action of winds, tides or waves. In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides shelter and fo ...

Career

After the War, Prout continued writing about boats and juvenile fiction, including publishing several books. In 1935 he founded G. Prout and Sons of Canvey Island after receiving a patent for his collapsible canoe in January 1935. The company initially built folding dinghies, canoes and kayaks, but by the 1950s, the company shifted to producing larger boats, particularly,

catamarans A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

. Geoffrey's sons

Francis Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places * Rural M ...

and

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

were canoeists who took part in the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

in Helsinki, and joined him in the business and focused on the production of catamarans. In the flooding of 1953 Prout was instrumental in saving at least one hundred lives, and he was featured in the newsreels."Sinking of the Princess Victoria and East Coast Flooding in 1953" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V2Xqj7ct0k Geoffrey Prout died on 15 April 1960, and was buried in the St. Katherine Churchyard on Canvey Island. Many of his early writings in ''The Boy's Own Paper'' are still available online via the

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

library. His 1931 book ''Scouts in Bondage'' (Aldine Press), which has been described as "a simple adventure story of its time, designed to promote the values of

Scouting Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...

", inspired a secondhand bookseller from

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

, Michael Bell, to compile ''Scouts in Bondage: And Other Curious Titles From Bygone Times With Titles That Might Cause Vulgar Minds To Misapprehend Their Content'' (2007,

Aurum Press The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...

: ), published in the United States by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

as ''Scouts in Bondage: And Other Violations of Literary Propriety'' ().

Works published

*"Weather Wisdom", ''

The Boy's Own Paper ''The Boy's Own Paper'' was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967. Publishing history The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society, as a means to encourage you ...

'', 25 Nov 1911 *"The "Boy’s Own" Weather Vane and How to Make It", ''

'', 30 Mar 1912. *"Harness the Wind!", ''

'', 11 May 1912 *"Anyone Going Cruising?", ''Chums'', 14 Jun 1925 *''Trawler Boy Dick: A Story of the Devon Fishing Fleet'' (1927) *''Witherington Wilds: A Story of the Essex Coast'' (1929) *''Brown's Pocket-Book for Yachtsmen'' (1930; 4th ed 1965) *''Scouts in Bondage: A Story of Boy Scouts in Strange Adventure'' (1930) *''Motor Boating for Beginners'' (1931) *''The Scouts of Windhaven'' (1931) *''The Secret of the Sands'' (1933) *''Simple Boat Building'' (1934) *''Mystery Marsh'' (1939) *''Yachting: How to Sail and Manage a Small Modern Yacht'' (1947)

References

External links

*Prout's stories liste
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in The FictionMags Index {{DEFAULTSORT:Prout, Geoffrey 20th-century English writers 20th-century English businesspeople British Army personnel of World War I British yacht designers Multihull designers Boat and ship designers