William Matthew Scott
William Matthew Scott, pen name Will Scott, was a British writer of stories and books for adults and children, published from 1920 to 1965. Towards the end of his life he was best known for The Cherrys series, written for children and published between 1952 and 1965. However, in earlier years he was known for his detective novels, his stage plays which were made into films, notably The Limping Man in 1931 and 1936, and for the 2,000 short stories that he contributed to magazines and newspapers; believed to be a record for the United Kingdom during his lifetime. As of 2011, his books are out of print.
Biography
Ancestry and youth
William Matthew Scott was born at 128 Camp Road in Little London, Leeds, Yorkshire on 30 September 1893. Camp Road was demolished in the 1960s. His place of birth was next to the poor Jewish immigrant area of tailors and shoemakers, called the Leylands, in the All Souls district of Leeds. At least until 1911 Scott lived in the working-class areas of Little London and Woodhouse, next to Meanwood Beck. The area has a history of poverty, and within living memory were the Woodhouse cholera epidemic of the 1840s, and the typhoid epidemic in nearby Headingley of 1889. When Scott was born, the middens and ashpits which had nurtured the diseases were being replaced by communal water closets. That meant that inhabitants of the back-to-backs had to walk to the end of the row to use the lavatory or empty a chamber pot but they would not catch cholera; communal outside lavatories and cobbled streets with washing lines overhead persisted while Scott lived there. However it should be remembered that street communities were strong, public transport was efficient and good quality education and libraries were available for working people. All the addresses at which Scott lived in his youth were demolished in the early 1960s slum clearances to make way for new council estates, but it should be remembered that many of these buildings were known to be repairable, so that "slum" was often a misnomer.His father was William Scott, a joiner, born in Leeds in 1861. His mother was Eliza Anne Scott nee Hibbard, born in Nottinghamshire in 1864. In 1891 the couple were living alone at 4 Clayfield Street in the All Souls parish of north Leeds, and Eliza Anne was a tailoress. This street of Victorian back-to-backs ran between Cambridge Road and Ashfield Leather Works; the area is now a playing field. This tannery would have been odiferous during smog or to houses downwind of it; also the nearby Meanwood Beck had in those days a history of industrial pollution. This may be the reason why William and Eliza Anne Scott took over the tobaconnist's from Samuel Cooper at 128 Camp Road in 1893 and their son was born there.
However the 1901 Census records W.M. Scott aged seven years with his parents and no siblings close to the tannery again at 20 Stonefield Terrace, in the All Souls parish of north Leeds, Yorkshire, and only four streets away from the Scotts' previous home in Clayfield Street. It was a four-room corner house in a back-to-back row on the corner with Cambridge Road. This was a street of back-to-back houses, but is now a row of trees on a playing field. In the 1911 Census he was aged 17 years, he had no siblings and he was a lithographic artist apprentice, living with his parents in a back-to-back house at 49 Ganton Mount at Woodhouse, Leeds; the street is now rebuilt as modern houses. In 1911 his father was a journeyman joiner, and his mother a housewife. The 1911 census enumerator recorded that the house had eight rooms instead of the regular back-to-back four rooms, so no. 49 must have been a larger corner house.
Adult life
His World War I services are not known, but a dozen William Scotts are recorded in the armed services at this time. In 1915 he married Lily Edmundson in Leeds Register Office; she was a tailoress and the daughter of George Edmundson, a machine fitter in 1891 and electrical engineer in 1915. Scott was at that time an artist and caricaturist, living at 79 Buslingthorpe Lane, Leeds; his mother was one of the witnesses at the wedding. They had two daughters: the first was Patricia Shirley born at 1 Highfield Terrace, Golders Green on 28 September 1919 when Scott described himself as a black and white artist. The second was Marjory Sylvia born at St Edwards maternity home, Station Road, Herne Bay on 4 January 1921. At this point Scott was describing himself as a journalist and living at Roldale House, Selsea Avenue, Herne Bay.So he was living in Herne Bay, Kent by 1921, and he was already familiar with the area by 1925 when he published Disher, Detective, which has his detective's assistant discovering a black stamp washed up at Hampton. In 1928 he was at St Minver Cottage in Salisbury Drive. From 1929 to 1932 he was living at Crown Hill Cottage, West Cliff Drive. From 1933 to 1935 he lived at The Old Cottage, a 17th-century listed building, at 125 Grand Drive. From 1935 to the end of his life he lived with his wife at Windermere in High View Avenue, at the top of Westcliff overlooking Hampton-on-Sea. He was living there when he wrote Herne Bay Pageant in 1937, and all his children's books were written there from about 1951 to 1964. The surroundings of all his Kentish residences are reflected in the settings of his books: notably in Half-Term Trail, 1955, which was written at Windermere and is set in Herne Bay and Hampton. While he was living at Windermere he had grandchildren for whom he wrote The Cherrys series.
He was a private person, said to have "shunned the limelight". However he contributed to the life of Herne Bay by directing its amateur dramatic society The Mask Players from 1930 to 1940, and he wrote the 1939 Town Guide "in his own idiosyncratic way". He created a logo for Herne Bay, showing its heron symbol, its clock tower, Reculver Towers and the sea. He died of a stroke at Nunnery Fields Hospital, Canterbury, on 7 May 1964; his death certificate describes him as a journalist. He was cremated at Barham Crematorium on 12 May 1964; his ashes were scattered in the grounds there, and there is no headstone or memorial. In 1998 the Herne Bay Gazette said, "Mr Scott was a true citizen of Herne Bay who had not received due recognition."
Career
His Times obituary says that he began in London as a caricaturist for the Performer magazine, drawing George Robey, Wilkie Bard, and Fred Kitchen from the film Old Mother Riley Overseas. However he was already working as a caricaturist in Leeds by 1915 when he was twenty-one. He was briefly the art editor of Pan magazine in London, but then moved to Herne Bay to become a full-time writer. The dust jacket of the first edition of The Cherrys series says:
"After being a cartoonist, an art critic, an art editor and a drama critic, Will Scott settled down as a fiction writer. He has written over 2,000 short stories, which is believed to be a record for this country. When his own daughters were small he wrote plays and books, all for grown ups. It was grandchildren who turned his thoughts to books for young readers. He says they are 'the greatest fun in the world'".