John Hay Beith
| John Hay Beith | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 April 1876 Chorlton, Lancashire |
| Died | 22 September 1952 (aged 76) Petersfield, Hampshire |
| Pen name | Ian Hay |
| Occupation | schoolmaster, soldier |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 20th century |
| Genres | drama, novels, non-fiction |
| Subjects | romantic comedy, school life, military life |
| Notable work(s) | Pip (1907), The First Hundred Thousand (1915), Tilly of Bloomsbury (1919) |
| Relative(s) | Gilbert Beith (uncle) |
Major General John Hay Beith, CBE (17 April 1876 – 22 September 1952), from Edinburgh, Scotland, was a schoolmaster and soldier, and, under the pen name Ian Hay, a novelist and playwright.
Contents |
[edit] Background
John Hay Beith was born in Chorlton, Lancashire, the second son of John Alexander Beith, of the Beith, Stevenson & Co. shipping and export business, based in Manchester.[1] His paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian clergyman, Rev. Dr. Alexander Beith, active in the Disruption of 1843.
[edit] Education
Beith was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh (initially as fag to Sir John Simon) and at St. Johns College, Cambridge,[2] where he played rugby and captained the college boat club.[3] Finding a second-class degree in Classics insufficient to obtain a steady teaching position at a major school, he returned to Cambridge for a further year to qualify as a teacher of physics and chemistry.
[edit] Teaching career
Beith joined Durham School in 1902 as junior science master, and also coached the rugby and boating crews. Durham featured in his The Housemaster (1936).[4]
After four years at Durham, Hay taught for six years at Fettes, spending much of his leisure time in writing. His first novel, the schoolboy romance Pip (1907), appeared while he was still teaching at the school. His light novels combined humour and shrewd observation, with an English tolerance of eccentricity and suited the taste of the age (he collaborated with P.G.Wodehouse)
[edit] Military career
He was a second-lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and was in France in April 1915 and was one of the first 100,000 of Kitchener's Army. He was awarded the Military Cross. He was later, in the rank of Major General, Director of Public Relations at the War Office (1938–1941).
[edit] Literary work
His work was well known for its wit; often quoted is this line from his play, Housemaster: "What do you mean, funny? Funny-peculiar or funny ha-ha?" From the same play, two characteristic Hay lines, from masters' reports on their pupils:
- ‘He can translate English into a Greek not spoken in Greece, and Greek into an English not spoken anywhere, with equal facility’
- ‘Despite his natural levity he habitually gravitates towards the bottom.’
The First Hundred Thousand (1915) is his best-known work, and is marked by the same sharp sense of humor as his other work: "War is hell, and all that, but it has a good deal to recommend it. It wipes out all the small nuisances of peace-time."
All In It K(1) Carries On: A Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand (1917) and Carrying On (1917) were also popular books of his. Other works include Tilly of Bloomsbury 1919, The Right Stuff, The Crimson Cocoanut, A Man's Man, A Safety Match, and Happy-Go-Lucky.
In 1928 Beith adapted P. G. Wodehouse's novel A Damsel in Distress as a play.[5] In 1929 Wodehouse helped to adapt Beith's Story Baa Baa Black Sheep for the stage [6] and in 1930 they again collaborated on the dramatisation of Wodehouse's Leave it to Psmith.[7]
Beith served as technical advisor for Cecil B. DeMille's silent film The Little American (1917), starring Mary Pickford. He was responsible for screenplays or dialogue of fifteen films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and Secret Agent (1936).
He died at Petersfield, Hampshire, on 22 September 1952.
[edit] References
- ^ Arthur St. John Adcock, The Glory That Was Grub-Street: Impressions of Contemporary Authors (first published 1928; reissued 1969), pp. 95-104.
- ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds (1922–1958). "Beith, John Hay". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Adcock, Glory, p. 98.
- ^ Murray, Patrick; rev. Katherine Mullin. "Beith, John Hay (pseud. Ian Hay) (1876–1952)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). http://www.oxforddnb.com./view/article/13475. Retrieved 13 September 2009. "In 1901 Beith taught at Fettes before returning to Cambridge for a short period to study science. In 1902 as a junior science master he joined Durham School, where he also coached the rugby teams and river crews. A charming companion, with a developed social sense, he was extremely popular. Durham featured in one of his best books, Housemaster (1936)."
- ^ Page 114 in P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master by David A. Jasen (2002). ISBN 0825672759.
- ^ Page 116 in P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master
- ^ Page 279 in P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master
