As "F. J. Whaley," Francis John Whaley published nine detective novels between 1936 and 1941:
Reduction of Staff (1936) (a brilliant tile for a public school tale)
Trouble in College (1936) (set at Cambridge and available in a new edition on amazon and amazon.co.uk)
Challenge to Murder (1937)
Southern Electric Murder (1938)
This Path Is Dangerous (1938) (I like this title too)
Swift Solution (1939)
The Mystery of Number Five (1940)
Death at Datchets (1941)
Enter a Spy (1941)
I only have five of these titles. To my frustration I've never been able to locate Challenge to Murder, This Path Is Dangerous and Death at Datchets (Enter a Spy sounds like an espionage thriller, like The Mystery of Number Five, and is of less personal interest to me). However, I'll look on the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. I'll be reviewing Southern Electric Murder as Friday's Forgotten Book.
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| See the Hove Daily Photo blog photo copyright Liz Marley 2009 See Liz Marley's Knitting on the Green blog |
So who was Francis John Whaley, detective novelist? His birth and death years are given as 1897 and 1977. My guess is that he was the same Francis John Whaley who was a son of Oswald Stanley Whaley, an Anglican minister born in 1856 in Kilburn, London.
Educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, Oswald Whaley served at Christ Church and Trinity Church in Hampstead, London before becoming Vicar of St. George's Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he served until 1936 (this church is now an arts center).
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| St. George's, Great Yarmouth |
This Francis John Whaley had an elder brother, also named Oswald Stanley Whaley (1890-1915). He was a great rugby player (a tradition in this family; see below) and, I believe, a Christ's College, Cambridge graduate like his father. After graduation he was briefly a master at Lindley School at Higham-on-the-Hill, a village in Leicestershire, before enlisting in the army when England entered the Great War. A 2nd Lieutenant, he was killed at Gallipoli in 1915.
This Francis John Whaley also served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Great War and in 1917 was cited "for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty." Unlike his brother, he survived the war. I assume at some point he attended Cambridge and played rugby.
The Whaley brothers' maternal uncle James Bevan (1856-1938) was an Anglican minister who, yes, attended Cambridge (St. John's this time) and played rugby. Bevan played at Cambridge and was the first Welsh international captain (which may mean more to some of you out there than it does to me--it gets him a Wikipedia entry, so it must be somewhat important!).
From what I have read of F. J. Whaley's books, they seem to frequently reflect the mindset of an English gentleman of the 1930s who attended a public school and Cambridge.
In Southern Electric Murder our key investigator is a well-educated and well-bred gentleman police sergeant assigned to a detective inspector with a considerable amount of class chips on his shoulder. The two men have an interesting relationship, and the book is a splendidly detailed mystery, full of trains and times. It's about the most Croftsian book I have read by an author other than Freeman Wills Crofts.
And, better yet, it has a very interestingly presented Jewish character and goes out of its way to condemn antisemitism. Granted, the war with Germany was close at hand, but it's still a rather rare thing to see an author in the genre of this time and place addressing modern political matters so forthrightly.
So, stay with me, there will be more on this book tomorrow (and no rants--for now).
Note: there have been three other Life of Crime entries on this blog. I will post links later (unfortunately the search box on the blog seems not to be working--at least not for me!)--TPT.
I see from Amazon.com that Ostara has a P.O.D. and Kindle version of Whaley's "Trouble in College" - I presume it's part of that publishing house's series of Cambridge-oriented mysteries. I guess I'm going to have to add to by TBR list again. Sigh...
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating world we live in today, where a small press specializes in mysteries devoted to Cambridge. Wonderful! More power to them!
DeleteI have got the italian translation by Challenge to Reader: "I NUOVI GIALLI" N.4 - EDIZIONI ALPE MILANO, 1 luglio 1950.
ReplyDeleteBut still I did not read it.
I sent you an email few days ago. Aren't you interested in what I wrote you?
Hi Pietro,
DeleteI don't see any email from you, otherwise I would have answered it. Why don't you resend it? Are you on Facebook, by the way? That's way a good way to get in touch with me as well, if we become friends there. You might like to join our Golden Age mystery discussion group too.
I hope you will read Challenge to Murder and let us know what you think of it!
I just resent the email.
ReplyDeletePietro
Hello from England
ReplyDeleteAfter WW2, Francis Whaley was a history teacher at BELMONT SCHOOL, Hassocks, England
My website explores this:
Home page: www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/
Francis Whaley: www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/photos-staff.html
His life: www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/Docs/FrancisWhaley.pdf
I am particularly interested in obtaining a copy of his “Enter a Spy”
Keep up the good work!
Douglas Butler debutler@argonet.co.uk
Thanks, will have to check it out.
DeleteI remember him as a maths teacher at Belmont School at Hassocks in Sussex in the early 1960s where he cut a strange and isolated figure even in that unsavoury environment. He would arrive daily on a large, noisily spluttering motorbike, wearing protective goggles and heavy outerwear, rather like someone from outer space. By then well into his sixties, he had lost half of one finger in the First World War and enjoyed waving the stump in our faces in order to horrify us, a goal he certainly achieved. He was a dreadful teacher, who simply sat at the front of the class, rocking to and fro much of the time as if in a trance. He was also a bully who was much given to punching boys quite hard on the side of the head with his knuckled fist. In the classroom he usually wore a conventional schoolmaster's black gown, the sleeves of which he would constantly fiddle with as he rocked hypnotically or walked around with his fist clenched, ready to punch you. I remember his gown was always covered in chalk dust. He taught me nothing but an abiding but most unhelpful dislike of mathematics.
ReplyDeleteYikes, I wonder what Douglas Butler (see above) would say. Definitely a different light on the man.
DeleteHere are some accounts from his website.
DeleteRay Dunsbier writes:
just received from my brother Derek Dunsbier in Canada, who was at Belmont a few years before me:
”Somebody in Form 4 shone a piece of mirror onto the blackboard. Mr Whaley’s aim was perfect, when the offending item was thrown through a small gap in the top of one of the tall windows. No further action was taken.”
Quite a character. I am almost sure he used to smoke his pipe in class. He certainly reeked of it!
Peter Gorle adds:
It was the boys vs staff match in about 1950. Whaley was late, but finally appeared and made a fine innings. Much later it transpired that his little dog [terrier?] had been run over and killed just as he set off. He stopped to bury his friend and then sped off to the match.
The Passing Tramp blog: Francis Whaley
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In Wilson adds:
I am sharing detail from the Hampshire Regimental Journal
(Sept 1917) announcing Whaley's Military Cross.
David Chaundler writes:
I remember FW had an obituary in the Times or Telegraph but this was presumably back in 1977 and this was the first I knew he had a Military Cross. I remember he had an accident on his motor bike and lost a finger. I also remember an incident on a walk when the local boys were taking the mick our of us, so I hit one of them and we were rolling in the ditch when FW came up, picked the boy-up by the scruff of the neck and gave him such a clout he probably landed in Kent. Pity one can't do that now. I did not get into trouble - probably should have - but I rather got the impression that FW approved.
Gus Gordon adds:
I did know that he had been awarded and MC and told people so, but nobody would believe me! Anyway he once told me that he had saved a German medical orderly in the first war, who was cowering in the bottom of a trench, which his Company had just captured and was about to be bayoneted when FW intervened. He was very remorseful for his actions as the Corporal was none other than Adolf Hitler, and FW said that he always felt that he was responsible for the Second World War!
John Taft adds:
It's a nice story, and one would want to believe it, but I fear not accurate - unless Hitler was spared more than once which is a possibility. I guess we'll never know: BBC link