Hector Bolitho

Henry Hector Bolitho (28 May 1897 – 12 September 1974) was a New Zealand author, novelist and biographer, who had 59 books published. Widely travelled, he spent most of his career in England.[1]

Bolitho had his stories explored by Stephen Bourne in his book Fighting Proud featuring many of the untold stories of the gay men who served in two world wars. Bourne includes Lord Kitchener, Battle of Britain hero Ian Gleed, writer Hector Bolitho, Police Constable Harry Daley, Noel Coward and bandleader Ken "Snakehips" Johnson.[2]

Biography

Hector Bolitho was born and educated in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of Henry and Ethelred Frances Bolitho. He travelled in the South Sea Islands in 1919 and then through New Zealand with the Prince of Wales in 1920.[3]

Bolitho lived in Sydney from 1921 to 1923,[4] where he became editor of the Shakespearean Quarterly and literary editor and drama critic of the Evening News in Sydney.[5]

He also travelled in Africa, Canada, America, and Germany in 1923-4, finally settling in Britain where he was to remain for the rest of his life.[6]

On his arrival in Britain he worked as a freelance journalist. At the start of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) as an intelligence officer with the rank of squadron leader, editing the Royal Air Force Weekly Bulletin, which in 1941 became the Royal Air Force Journal. In 1942 he was appointed editor of the Coastal Command Intelligence Review.

Bolitho undertook several lecture tours of America (in 1938–39, 1947, 1948, and 1949) and he also revisited Australia in later years.[4]

In his forties, Hector shared his life and his home with John Simpson. Hector described John as his ‘secretary’, which was then a common euphemism for gay partner. Simpson later died and his long-term partner was Derek Peel, an army officer. They met in 1949 and were together until Bolitho's death in 1974.[7]

Bolitho is referenced in (barely disguised) fictional form as "Hector Bolithiero" in the Denton Welch short story "Brave and Cruel".

The name Bolitho is of Cornish origin.[8]

Bibliography
  • The Island of Kawau 1919
  • Tramps in the Far North 1919
  • The Islands of Wonder 1920
  • With the Prince in New Zealand 1920
  • Solemn Boy (novel) 1927
  • The Letters of Lady Augusta Stanley 1927
  • Thistledown and Thunder 1928
  • The New Zealanders 1928
  • Judith Silver (novel) 1929
  • The New Countries 1929
  • The Later Letters of Lady Augusta Stanley 1929
  • The Glorious Oyster 1929
  • (with Very Rev. A. V. Baillie) A Victorian Dean: A Memoir of Arthur Stanley 1930
  • The Flame on Ethirdova (novel) 1930
  • Albert the Good, a Life of the Prince Consort 1932
  • Alfred Mond: First Baron Melchett, a biography 1933
  • Beside Galilee: a Diary in Palestine 1933
  • The Prince Consort and his Brother 1934
  • Victoria, the Widow and her Son 1934
  • (with Terence Rattigan) Grey Farm (play) performed 1934
  • Older People 1935
  • The House in Half Moon Street (short stories) 1935
  • James Lyle MacKay, First Earl of Inchcape 1936
  • Marie Tempest: a Biography 1936
  • King Edward VIII: his Life and Reign 1937
  • Royal Progress 1937
  • George VI 1937
  • Victoria and Albert 1938
  • (ed) Further Letters of Queen Victoria 1938
  • Victoria and Disraeli (radio play) performed 1938
  • (with John Mulgan) The Emigrants 1939
  • Roumania under King Carol 1939
  • America Expects 1940
  • War in the Strand 1942
  • Combat Report 1943
  • No Humour in My Love (short stories) 1946
  • Task for Coastal Command 1946
  • The Romance of Windsor Castle 1947
  • Thirty Years 1947
  • The Reign of Queen Victoria 1948
  • A Biographer's Notebook 1950
  • A Century of British Monarchy 1951
  • Their Majesties 1951
  • (with Derek Peel) Without the City Wall 1952
  • The Coronation Book of Queen Elizabeth II (chapter entitled The New Elizabethans) 1953
  • Jinnah, Creator of Pakistan 1954
  • A Penguin in the Eyrie 1955
  • The Wine of the Douro 1956
  • The Angry Neighbours 1957
  • No 10, Downing Street 1957
  • 'Gilbert Harding in Brighton', Gilbert Harding by his Friends, ed. S. Grenfell 1961
  • My Restless Years (autobiography) 1962
  • The Galloping Third 1963
  • Albert, Prince Consort 1964, rev. edn, 1970
  • (with Derek Peel) The Drummonds of Charing Cross 1967
  • He also edited The British Empire (published by Batsford, 1947–48)

References
  1. team, Code8. "Hector Bolitho". Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) Literary Agents. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  2. Science, London School of Economics and Political. "Fighting Proud: the untold story of the gay men who served in two world wars". London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  3. Bloomsbury.com. "Bloomsbury - Hector Bolitho - Hector Bolitho". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  4. "Hector Bolito". AustLit. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  5. Michael Thornton, ‘Bolitho, (Henry) Hector (1897–1974)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 4 May 2014
  6. "The Albatross". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  7. "queerplaces - Hector Bolitho". www.elisarolle.com. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-11-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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