Dennis Wheatley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dennis Yates Wheatley was born South London 8th January 1897, the eldest of three children of an upper middle class family, owners of a wine business Wheatley and Son of Mayfair. His schooling was at Dulwich College, from which he was expelled and, as it was decided that what the young Wheatley needed was discipline, as a cadet at HMS Worcester, a Napoleonic three decker training ship moored in the Thames, a training college for potential merchant navy officers. From school he spent nine months in Germany and then joined the family wine business until WW1 intervened. Although only seventeen he eventually became a 2nd Lieut. in the Royal Field Artillery and after several postings in the British Isles saw service in Flanders on the Ypres Salient and in France at Cambrai and St. Quentin. In 1918 he developed bronchitis aggravated by chlorine gas and was invalided back to hospital in England. He recovered enough to be declared fit about the time of the armistice but was never posted or formally demobilised and in 1919 he rejoined his father's business. Wheatley married his first wife in 1922 and although his income was supplemented by his wife their extravagant lifestyle led to debts which had to be settled by his father. By 1927 he was once more in debt and supporting a mistress when his financial problems were solved by the death of his father and he became sole owner of the business. By 1931 despite some imaginative marketing the business was almost bankrupt and he and his wife divorced. Later the same year he married his second wife who was to support him in his attempts at writing. His first book, Three Inquisitive People, was set aside by his publishers, Hutchinson, in favour of his next, The Forbidden Territory, which they published first in 1933. He began to concentrate on his writing although he retained an interest in the wine business for some years and also used his innovative marketing skills in a series of 'crime dossier' novels. With the coming of WW2, already a successful novelist, Wheatley submitted a number of papers to the Joint Planning Staff of the war cabinet (an edited version of one, Total War, was published). He was eventually asked to join them, the only civilian given a commission directly into the Joint Planning Staff with the rank of Wing Commander, RAFVR. After the war he continued writing the several series of thrillers that he had created, Duke de Richelieu, Gregory Sallust and Roger Brook, as well as other novels, an account of his war papers and his autobiography, the first volume of which had already been published when he died on 10th November, 1977. Biographical and bibliographical note on Dennis Wheatley Medal card of Wheatley, Dennis Yates Royal Field Artillery Lieutenant Date 1914-1920 The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details
Huh! What precipitated this article about Dennis Wheatley may I ask? Yup, he sure was an Old Worcester .... I have a copy of the first part of his autobiography "The time has come the young man said ... 1897 to 1914" The memoirs of Dennis Wheatley. A goodly portion covers his time on Worcester and, I might add there was not a lot of difference in his way of life in 1910-1912 to ours aboard Worcester during 1955 to 1959. If you can find a copy then do grab it and have a read its really quite a good insight into life around that period, no doubt about it, he was quite a spoilt lad. I did have a session of reading his books .. "To the Devil a Daughter" " Satanist" and such... Did not go much on his Gregory Sallust books .... a sort of early James Bond. He was in Churchills "Think Tank" during WW II as mentioned in above threads.
I was looking for something else on the Joint Planning Staff ........ !! And it occurred to me that Dennis Wheatley had fought in WW1 and I thought I'd look him up !! I do have a few of his books ... but nothing about his time at sea !! That's why I can't get anything done barnsey ... I get sidetracked too easily !! :clapping: Annie
Annie, we must be of a like mind .... but ..... theres sooooo much to see and read ... God Bless The Net.
