Ivor Halstead (11 October 1888 – 7 April 1959) was a British journalist and author, editor of the ''

Daily Sketch The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton. It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers, but in 1925 Rothermere sold it to William and Gomer Berry ...

''. Born in 1888 at

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

, in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, Halstead was one of the sons of William Hartley Halstead and his wife Mary Ellen Scatchard. He was baptised in 1889 in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Eastborough, Dewsbury, together with an older brother, William Edgar, born in 1886. In the

1911 United Kingdom census The United Kingdom Census 1911 of 2 April 1911 was the 12th nationwide census conducted in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The total population of the United Kingdom was approximately 45,221,000, with 36,070,000 recorded in England ...

, the family was at The Woodlands, Ings Road, Dewsbury, and Halstead was listed as a Journalist.“Ivor Halstead”
halstedresearch.org.uk, accessed 5 November 2022 During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Halstead enlisted in the

2/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army formed in 1902. Units of Yeomanry Cavalry were raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries at times of national emergency: the Jacobite Rising ...

, a cavalry regiment, and was disembodied on 28 June 1919, meaning that his unit returned to a part-time status. By 1926, Halstead had been appointed as editor of the ''Daily Sketch'' and was also working with Professor A. M. Low on the script of a film to be called ''Cosmos'', about the history of the world from the beginning of time. In 1927 he helped found th
Women's Automobile and Sports Association
(WASA) for which he was the initial acting organiser until its committee of aristocratic and wealthy ladies formally constituted it in 1929. On 30 July 1932, Halstead married Ada Baxter in

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...

, and in September 1939 they were living at 66/68 South Side,

Clapham Common Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of gr ...

. Halstead's ''Wings of Victory'' (1940) was described in a review in December of that year as “the first story of the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

to appear in a book”. In October 1941, a note from

Leslie Rowan Sir Thomas Leslie Rowan (22 February 1908 – 29 April 1972) was a British civil servant and industrialist. He served in the Colonial Office and HM Treasury, and was Principal Private Secretary to Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, before ...

, Private Secretary to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, informed Churchill that Major W. Turner, Assistant Director of Public Relations, was asking Churchill to agree to be interviewed by Halstead, who was writing a book on tanks. A book about the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

, ''Post Haste'', was a war-time best seller and in 1952 was translated into Japanese by G. Miyaki and published in Japan. Halstead's ''The Gentle Sex'' (1943), written with

Leslie Howard Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' and was one ...

and

Jean Knox Jean Marcia Montagu, Baroness Swaythling, CBE (née Leith-Marshall; 14 August 1908 – 13 December 1993), first married name Knox, was Director of the Auxiliary Territorial Service from July 1941 to October 1943. Early life She was born on 14 ...

, Director of the

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...

, was to promote the film of the same name directed by Howard and starring

Joan Greenwood Joan Mary Waller Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 28 February 1987) was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She played Sibella in the 1949 film ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'', and also app ...

.The Gentle Sex: The Great Film Story of Life in the A.T.S.
bdcmuseum.org.uk, accessed 5 November 2022 Halstead died at 30 Rutland Gardens,

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, on 7 April 1959.

Selected publications

*''Bulletins from Britain'' (E. P. Dutton and Co., 1940) *''Wings of Victory: a tribute to the R.A.F.'' (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1940; Right Book Club, 1941) *''Heroes of the Atlantic: the British Merchant Navy carries on'' (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1941; Right Book Club, 1942) *''The Truth about Our Tanks'' (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1943) *''The Gentle Sex: the Great Film Story of Life in the A.T.S.'' (London: Fosh & Cross, 1943), with

and

*''Post Haste: The Story of the Post Office in Peace and War'' (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1944) *''Hansard Digest 1946–1947'' (London: Whitehall, 1947) *''The State We Are In'' (London: Whitehall, 1947) *''Bond Street'' (London: Barcliff, 1952)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halstead, Ivor 1888 births 1959 deaths Journalists from Yorkshire People from Dewsbury