Humphry Francis Ellis (17 July 1907 – 8 December 2000) was an English comic writer. He created A. J. Wentworth, the ineffectual schoolmaster whose fictional diaries were first published in the magazine ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

''.

Life

Humphry Francis Ellis was born in

Metheringham Metheringham is an English village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,605. It is about south of the city and county town of Lincoln and north of Sleafor ...

, Lincolnshire. After gaining a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in Classics at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, in 1930, Ellis was employed by

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

to teach. ''

'' first accepted a submission in 1931, and he left to become a staff writer on the magazine in 1933, the same year he married Barbara Hasseldine. Ellis became literary and deputy editor of the magazine in 1949, a post which he held until 1953, when he resigned in protest at the appointment of

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romfo ...

as editor. ''Punch'' continued to publish Ellis's work, but from 1954 he found a more lucrative market in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', where the Wentworth stories proved very popular. Ellis was a

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

at university, and subsequently played for the town of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

and for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. ''The Papers of A. J. Wentworth, B.A.'' were republished by Prion Press before Ellis's death in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

in 2000.

''A. J. Wentworth, B.A.''

In ''Punch'', from November 1938 onwards, Ellis developed the character of A. J. Wentworth, which was inspired by his experience as a schoolmaster. A collected version, ''The Papers of A. J. Wentworth, B.A.'', was first published in book form in 1949. Four further Wentworth titles appeared up to 1982. A. J. Wentworth, B.A., a gauche, diffident and rather ineffectual mathematics teacher, works at Burgrove Preparatory School in the fictional village of Wilminster. His diaries recount the trials of teaching Pythagoras to unruly schoolboys, as well as Wentworth's experiences as an officer in the Second World War, and later his life in retirement. The Wentworth stories were read out on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

programme ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by A ...

'' by the actor

Arthur Lowe Arthur Lowe (22 September 1915 – 15 April 1982) was an English actor. His acting career spanned 36 years, including starring roles in numerous theatre and television productions. He played Captain Mainwaring in the British sitcom ''Dad' ...

, who went on to play Wentworth in an

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

sitcom, '' A.J. Wentworth, B.A.'' in 1982. Only six episodes were made before Lowe died.

Bibliography

Books

*''So This is Science!'', 1932 *''The Pleasure's Yours'', 1933 *''Much Ado'', 1934 *''Why the Whistle Went: Notes on the Laws of Rugby Football'', c. 1948 *''The Papers of A. J. Wentworth, B.A.'', 1949 *(Joint ed.) ''The Royal Artillery Commemoration Book, 1939–1945'' *''The Vexations of A. J. Wentworth, B.A.'', 1950 *(ed.) ''The Manual of Rugby Union Football, for Coaches and Players'', 1952 *(ed.) ''The Art of Refereeing: a Handbook for Rugby Union Referees'', 1956 *''Twenty-Five Years Hard'', 1960 *''Mediatrics; or, The importance and proper care of the middle-aged'', 1961 *''The Papers of A. J. Wentworth, B.A. (Ret'd.)'', 1962, reprinted 2000 *''Swan song of A. J. Wentworth'', 1982 *''The Bee in the Kitchen'', 1983

Essays

References

Miles Kington Miles Beresford Kington (13 May 1941 – 30 January 2008) was a British journalist, musician (a double bass player for Instant Sunshine and other groups) and broadcaster. He is also credited with the invention of Franglais, a fictional language, ...

: Obituary, 9 December 2000, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, H.F. 1907 births 2000 deaths English writers The New Yorker people