Edward Keble Chatterton (10 September 1878 – 31 December 1944) was a prolific writer who published around a hundred books, pamphlets and magazine series, mainly on maritime and naval themes.

Biography

Born at number 76, Rock Street,

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, he attended Sheffield Royal Grammar School followed by St Paul's School, then located in Hammersmith, London. He took a B.A. at St. Stephen's House, Oxford, before beginning to write theatre and art reviews for various magazines. In 1905, he edited ''The Lady's Realm'' for a number of issues. He undertook a number of small-boat voyages through the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

; out of these voyages came magazine articles and books describing the passages as well as several books on the maritime art collections of the Low Countries. At the outbreak of

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, Chatterton joined the

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(R.N.V.R.), ultimately commanding a

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flotilla at Queenstown, now

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, in Ireland. He describes these years in ''Q-Ships and their Story'' (1922), ''The Auxiliary Patrol'' (1924) and ''Danger Zone: The Story of the Queenstown Command'' (1934). He left the service in 1919 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In the inter-war years, his output was continuous, and included a series of monographs on model ships, many narrative histories of naval events, and a number of juvenile novels. Most of his books were republished in the United States and several were translated into French and German editions. A member of the

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for many years, he carried out a multi-season voyage to the Mediterranean through the French canals. He described these in a further series of books: his journeys on the

Canal de Nantes à Brest Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow u ...

are outlined in ''Through Brittany in "Charmina": From Torbay to the Bay of Biscay in a 6-Tonner'' (1933), journeys on the

Canal du Midi The Canal du Midi (; ) is a long canal in Southern France (). Originally named the ''Canal Royal en Languedoc'' (Royal Canal in Languedoc) and renamed by French revolutionaries to ''Canal du Midi'' in 1789, the canal is considered one of the g ...

are described in ''To the Mediterranean in "Charmina"'' (1934), and journeys along the

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are described in ''"Charmina" on the Riviera'' (1937). After 1939, his writings focused on the conflict with Germany. Hutchinsons published a series documenting the

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at war, which was completed by Kenneth Edwards following Chatterton's death in 1944.

Published works

''Sailing Ships''
London : Sidgwick & Jackson, 1909. * ''Down the Channel in the "Vivette"''. London : Sidgwick & Jackson, 1910. * at

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* ''King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855''. London : George Allen & Company, Ltd., 1912. * ''Through Holland in the Vivette''. London : Seeley, Service & Co., 1913.
''Ships and Ways of Other Days''
London : Sidgwick & Jackson, 1913. * ''Ventures and voyages''. London : Rich & Cowan, 1928. * ''Through Brittany in "Charmina"''. London : Rich & Cowan, 1933. * ''Sailing models ancient & modern''. London : Hurst & Blackett Ltd, 1934. * ''Ship Models''. London : Studio Ltd, 1923. * ''The story of the British Navy'' mills and boon, 1911

Notes

External links

* *

at Bruzelius.info * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterton, Edward Keble 1878 births 1944 deaths Royal Navy officers of World War I Writers from Sheffield British military writers People educated at St Paul's School, London People educated at Sheffield Grammar School