John Francis Cyril Westerman (born at Southsea, Hampshire 22 January 1901, died at La Linea, Spain 21 November 1991) was an English author of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. He was the son of author

Percy F. Westerman Percy Francis Westerman (1876 – 22 February 1959) was an English author of children's literature, with a prolific output. Many of his books are adventure stories with military and naval themes. Biography He was born in Portsmouth, England in ...

, and wrote at least thirty full length stories for boys, mostly about flying but some in a school series, and edited works for

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

.J.F.C. and Percy Westerman
/ref> His most famous character was John Wentley, the intrepid airman and adventurer. In December 1928, he was married to Muriel Poulter after her separation from her husband C N Lindsaye by whom she had two children, Hugh and Jennie. J F C Westerman "adopted" the children although they retained the surname of Lindsaye. He rose to the rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

British army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

serving with the

King's African Rifles The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces regiment raised from Britain's East African colonies in 1902. It primarily carried out internal security duties within these colonies along with military service elsewher ...

and in Korea. Late in life around 1977 he was known to have lived on a

yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...

both in Gibraltar harbour and off the coast of

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

with his second wife Margaret, an Irish career nursing sister. They later moved to a static caravan home along the Costa del Sol. Selected Works Novels ''The Counter-Stroke'' (Ward, Lock & Co., 1946) ''John Wentley Investigates'' (Collins 1951) ''The Secret Island'' ''The Looted Gold (Ward, Lock & Co, 1932)'' ''John Wentley Wins Through (Children's Press)'' ''Twelve Months To Win''

References

English children's writers 1901 births 1991 deaths 20th-century English male writers {{UK-child-writer-stub