Neville Armstrong
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Neville Spearman Armstrong (20 October 1913 – September 2008) was a British soldier, literary agent, and publisher. In the 1940s and early 1950s he was in partnerships with others, then from 1955 he operated his own publishing company called Neville Spearman.


Early life

The son of a tea planter in
British Ceylon British Ceylon (; ), officially British Settlements and Territories in the Island of Ceylon with its Dependencies from 1802 to 1833, then the Island of Ceylon and its Territories and Dependencies from 1833 to 1931 and finally the Island of Cey ...
, Armstrong was born there in 1913. His parents, John Spearman Armstrong and Dora Mary Brooke Booth, only daughter of John Brooke Booth, had married in January 1913 at
Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...
. His grandfather, Charles Spearman Armstrong, born in 1847, had been a pioneer in growing tea and
cinchona ''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the Tropical Andes, tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are ...
, the source of
quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...
, and had planted 750 acres of tea on an estate called Rookwood, near Hewaheta village, now located in Central Province.Royston Ellis
Rookwood: memories of a forgotten pioneer
''The Sunday Times'' (Sri Lanka), 7 September 1997, accessed 27 July 2021
When he was five, Armstrong was sent to England to be brought up by an unmarried aunt, while his parents stayed in Ceylon with their other three children. He arrived at
Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...
on the SS ''Herefordshire'' on 8 August 1919. His Armstrong grandparents had already retired and settled in England at
West Byfleet West Byfleet is a village in Surrey which grew up around its relatively minor stop on the London & South Western Railway: the station, originally '' Byfleet and Woodham'', opened in 1887. More than from the medieval village of Byfleet, the ...
, and his grandfather died there in 1924. Armstrong subsequently had a public school education, but he passed no examinations, and on leaving school he joined the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
. After struggling to become an actor for four years, he left the theatre.
Margaret Rutherford Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, film and television. Rutherford came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's ''Blithe Spirit (1945 f ...
commented on this: "You mean, dear boy, the theatre left you."Ian Miller
Other lives: Neville Armstrong
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 26 September 2008, accessed 27 July 2021
In October 1939, Armstrong and his wife were registered at 17 Marloes Road, Kensington; he was a journalist, she a guesthouse manager. In 1940, he enlisted in the British Army and for two years was a clerk in the Egyptian western desert. On 21 July 1943, Armstrong was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the
Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...
, after revealing his origins in Ceylon, although unable to speak
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
. Given command of a
Rajputana Rifles The Rajputana Rifles is the oldest rifle regiment of the Indian Army, having been founded in 1775. It traces its origins to the British Indian Army, when six previously existing regiments were amalgamated to form six battalions of the 6th ...
platoon with a
Bren light machine gun The Bren gun (Brno-Enfield) was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by the United Kingdom in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in Worl ...
, he fought at the
battle of Monte Cassino The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome, was a series of four military assaults by the Allies of World War II, Allies against Nazi Germany, German forces in Kingdom of Italy, Italy during the Italian Campaign (World War ...
in the spring of 1944. After that, he was posted to the Indian Army's Intelligence Corps in
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
.


Career

After the war, Armstrong became an impresario at Bolton's Theatre,
South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...
. This made little money, and he next tried his hand at working as a
literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwr ...
, which led him into book publishing. He went into a short-lived partnership with John Calder as Spearman Calder, then in 1948 Armstrong formed a publishing partnership with Peter Owen called Peter Neville. Owen was then aged only 21. In 1955, Armstrong launched his own London publishing house, under the name of Neville Spearman Publishers. One of his first publications under that name was the collected poems of Trevor Blakemore. An obituary described Armstrong as “one of the last of the gentlemen publishers, who produced books mirroring their own whims and tastes”. Over forty years, he published more than five hundred books, with a wide range of subjects, which included chess, cookery, espionage, fiction, flying saucers, poetry, reincarnation, sex, spiritualism, and wrestling. They included a translation of Sartre's ''Intimacy'' and J. P. Donleavy’s ''
The Ginger Man ''The Ginger Man'' is a picaresque novel by American-Irish writer J. P. Donleavy, first published in Paris in 1955. The story is set in Dublin, Ireland, in post-war 1947. Originally banned for obscenity, the book has since become a major commer ...
''. In publishing Donleavy’s work in 1956, Armstrong insisted that it needed to be heavily censored, to avoid the author, publisher, and printer from being prosecuted under the
Obscene Publications Acts Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by Sir Al ...
. He published the first sexual instruction book "Your Erotic Fantasies!" by Graham Masterton, under the nom-de-plume Edward Thorne. Armstrong was managing director of Neville Spearman Ltd. and Neville Spearman (Educational) Ltd. He was also a director of The Holland Press Ltd. and R. & B. Advertising Associates Ltd. He sold the Neville Spearman companies in 1985.


Personal life

In 1937, at
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
, Armstrong married firstly Margaret Gosschalk (1909–1999).“Neville S. Armstrong” in ''England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005'': Name: Neville S Armstrong / Date: Oct 1937 / Registration District: Westminster / Spouse: Margaret J Gosschalk / Volume Number: 1a / Page Number: 1086” There was a child of this marriage, but the couple separated about 1958. In 1964, Armstrong's mother killed herself. He then joined the
Samaritans Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...
as a volunteer and was trained by Chad Varah. Armstrong lived in
Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...
,
Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...
, from 1973 to 1976, after which he lived part-time in
Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
.Douglas A. Anderson, Mark Valentine, "Arkham House reprints from Neville Spearman", in ''Wormwoodiana'', 23 June 2017 He shared his life with Lili Munk for more than thirty years, and in 1999, after the death of his wife, they were married in a Buddhist religious ceremony on the lawn of the house at Great Waldingfield, Suffolk, where they had lived since the late 1970s. Armstrong died in September 2008 at age 94.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong Nevill 1913 births 2008 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art British Indian Army officers English publishers (people) People from British Ceylon Indian Army personnel of World War II British Buddhists Sri Lankan people of British descent