Percy Francis Westerman (1876 – 22 February 1959) was an English author of children's literature, with a prolific output. Many of his books are adventure stories with military and naval themes.

Biography

He was born in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, England in 1876, and educated at

Portsmouth Grammar School The Portsmouth Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school in Portsmouth, England, located in the historic part of Portsmouth. It was founded in 1732 as a boys' school and is located on Portsmouth High Street. History In 1732, ...

, before taking up a clerical appointment at Portsmouth Dockyard at the age of twenty. He married Florence Wager, of Portsmouth, in 1900. Always keen sailors, they spent part of their honeymoon sailing in the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

. Their son, John F.C. Westerman, born in 1901, also wrote adventure books for boys. At the age of 70 he was reluctantly forced by a fall to leave his houseboat for dry land, but he continued writing apace. He died at the age of 82, and his last book, ''Mistaken Identity'', was published posthumously in 1959.

Writing career

His writing career allegedly began with a sixpence bet made with his wife that he could write a better story than the one he was reading to his son, who was at the time ill with

chickenpox Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease caused by the initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV). The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which eventually scab ...

. His first book for boys, ''A Lad of Grit'', was published by

Blackie and Son Limited Blackie & Son was a publishing house in Glasgow, Scotland, and London, England, from 1809 to 1991. History The firm was founded as a bookseller in 1809 by John Blackie (1782–1874) as a partnership with two others and was known as 'Black ...

in 1908. In the same year,

Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the worl ...

founded the

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 ...

movement, which strongly influenced many of Westerman's books – he was a particularly keen supporter of the

Sea Scouts Sea Scouts are a part of the Scout movement, with a particular emphasis on boating and other water-based activities on the sea, rivers or lakes (canoeing, rafting, scuba, sailboarding). Sea Scouts can provide a chance to sail, cruise on boats, ...

. He published a further three books in 1911, which were so successful that he gave up his Admiralty appointment that year to become a full-time author. He lived on board a

houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...

– a converted

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

– on the River Frome at Wareham in Dorset, where he wrote the majority of his books. An early book, ''The Flying Submarine'' (published in 1912) may indicate Westerman's genre. This boys' adventure novel was about a mysterious man from a South American country. He was an inventor, who had discovered a new kind of lighter-than-air gas that he called “helia”, which was much lighter than

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

. He used helia in many inventions, including back-packs that could help a man float in the air or fly upwards, and in the remarkable titular submarine that could, when enough helia was used, fly! Eventually he used his flying submarine to win a war between his South American country and its belligerent neighbour. It is highly likely that Westerman derived the idea for this super-weapon from Jules Verne's ''Terror'', the speedboat, submarine, automobile, or aircraft superweapon invented by Verne's arch-hero Robur in '' Master of the World'' and '' The Clipper of the Clouds''. Similarly Westerman's South American conflict reflects the wars between Paraguay and Uruguay. 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 ...

, he was initially employed on coastal duties by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, but in 1918 he was commissioned, like

W. E. Johns William Earl Johns (5 February 189321 June 1968) was an English First World War pilot, and writer of adventure stories, usually written under the pen name Capt. W. E. Johns: best known for creating the fictional air-adventurer ''Biggles''. Ear ...

, in the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

, as an instructor of

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

. During the

Second World War 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 ...

he commanded the Arne platoon of the 7th

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

battalion (Wareham) from June 1940 until 26/12/1942. He wrote to Blackie of his service in the two wars that "neither appointment seriously interfered with my literary output." During the 1930s Westerman was voted the most popular author of stories for boys. His books sold over one and a half million copies in his lifetime (total sales at his death were 1,599,000). He published at least 174 books, with 12 different firms.

Bibliography

Publication dates as listed by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. Many titles were reissued subsequently, some several times.

Series

His publishing house S. W. Partridge included Westerman in a series entitled 'The Great Adventure Series' along with Rowland Walker, author of ''Oscar Danby, V.C.''

Example illustrations of Westerman's books

Westerman's books were illustrated, as was the norm with books intended for the juvenile market. Typically they had from four to six full page illustration, although some had more. ''The Sea Monarch'', which had originally been serialised in ''

The Captain ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' in 1911, had 12 full page illustrations. The

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...

edition of the book has eight more illustrations (not full pages size), as the book was scanned from Volume XXV of ''The Captain'' rather than from the book published by A. C. Black.

Illustrations for Westerman's first book

Illustrations by Edward S. Hodgson for ''A Lad of Grit: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times'' (1908). This was the first book by Westerman and the first of seventeen of his books to be illustrated by Hodgson. By courtesy of

. File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for A Lad of Grit (1909) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-1.jpg, No.-1 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for A Lad of Grit (1909) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-2.jpg, No.-2 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for A Lad of Grit (1909) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-3.jpg, No.-3 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for A Lad of Grit (1909) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-4.jpg, No.-4

Illustrations for one of Westerman's First World War stories

Illustrations by Edward S. Hodgson for ''Winning his Wings: A story of the R. A. F.'' (1920) by Westerman. This was another story by Westerman set in the

. It was one of seventeen books by Westerman illustrated by Hodgson. By courtesy of

. File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for Winning his Wings (1920) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-1.jpg, No.-1 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for Winning his Wings (1920) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-2.jpg, No.-2 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for Winning his Wings (1920) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-3.jpg, No.-3 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for Winning his Wings (1920) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-4.jpg, No.-4 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for Winning his Wings (1920) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-5.jpg, No.-5 File:Illustration by E. S. Hodgson for Winning his Wings (1920) by Percy F. Westerman-by courtesy of Project Gutenberg-6.jpg, No.-6

Notes

References

Sources

J.F.C. and Percy Westerman
*Obituary of Mr. Percy F. Westerman, ''The Times'' (London). 25 February 1959.

External links

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westermanyarns
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Westerman, Percy F. 1876 births 1959 deaths 20th-century English novelists People educated at The Portsmouth Grammar School English children's writers Writers from Portsmouth Royal Flying Corps officers British Home Guard officers British Army personnel of World War I Royal Navy personnel of World War I Military personnel from Portsmouth