James Lennox Kerr


James Lennox Kerr was a Scottish socialist author noted for his children's stories written under the pseudonym of Peter Dawlish.
Kerr lived in Paisley until 1915, joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve by claiming to be 18, then served on merchant ships until 1929. After spending some time in Australia and America he settled in Pimlico in 1930, marrying Elizabeth "Mornie" Birch of Penwith, Cornwall in 1932. She was the daughter of Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch the RA painter.
His first book, for adults, Back Door Guest, described life as a hobo in USA and Canada, and is full of social comment which was then controversial. He wrote 32 books for children, most with a nautical theme and 23 books for adults, many commenting on working class life in Scotland, America and Australia. As an author he used, in addition to his own name, the pseudonyms "Gavin Douglas" for adult books and "Peter Dawlish" for children's books after 1938.
Kerr served in World War I, on minesweepers in World War II, assisted at Omaha beach, and was mentioned in despatches.
Kerr was a self-proclaimed socialist, but he was never a member of the Communist Party. He joined and then left the Labour Party. W. H. Marwick, in his bibliography on Scottish economic history, comments on the role of Kerr in representing proletariat labourers in his novels. Kerr was survived by a son, Adam Kerr, whose reminiscences of his father were used in works by authors Austin Wormleighton and Stephen Bigger.

As James Lennox Kerr

  • 1930:Back Door Guest
  • 1930:Ice
  • 1932:Glenshiels
  • 1935:Woman of Glenshiels
  • 1935:The Blackspit Smugglers
  • 1936:The Eye of the Earth
  • 1940:The Eager Years: An Autobiography
  • 1950:Wavy Navy: by some who served
  • 1953:Touching the Adventures - Of Merchantmen in the Second World War (edited by Kerr. It featured a foreword by John Masefield. Kerr uses all three of his pen names in this volume.

    As Peter Dawlish

  • 1939:Captain Peg-Leg's War
  • 1939:Peg Leg and the Fur Pirates
  • 1940:Peg-Leg Sweeps the Sea
  • 1940:Peg-Leg and the Invaders
  • 1947:The First Tripper
The “Dauntless” Series describes the adventures of a group of five Cornish boys who restore a fishing boat, formerly a French crabber, with the help of Captain Blake. These adventures were published between 1947 and 1960. Books in the series include:
  • 1947:Dauntless Finds Her Crew
  • 1948:Dauntless Sails Again
  • 1949:Dauntless and the Mary Baines
  • 1950:Dauntless Takes Recruits
  • 1952:Dauntless Sails In
  • 1954:Dauntless in Danger
  • 1957:Sailors All!
  • 1960:Dauntless Goes Home
Other children’s books using the Peter Dawlish pseudonym include:
  • 1953:The Bagodia Episode
  • 1954:Young Drake of Devon
  • 1955:He Went with Drake
  • 1955:Way for a Sailor
  • 1956:North Sea Adventure
  • 1956:Martin Frobisher
  • 1958:Aztec Gold
  • 1959:The Race for Gowrie Bay
  • 1962:The Boy Jacko
  • 1963:The Seas of Britain
  • 1963:The Royal Navy
  • 1960:Johnno, the Deep-Sea Diver, the Life Story of Diver Johnson as told to Peter Dawlish by John Johnstone.
  • 1966:Merchant Navy
He also wrote adult novels as Gavin Douglas.
  • 1935:Rough Passage ''The Tall Man
  • 1936:The Obstinate Captain Samson
  • 1937:Captain Samson, A.B.
  • 1938:The Search for the Blue Sedan
  • 1948:A Tale of Pimlico
  • 1949:The Scuffler
  • 1949:Seamanship for Passengers
  • 1951:The Struggle''