Harry Collingwood
Harry Collingwood was the pseudonym of William Joseph Cosens Lancaster (23 May 1843 – 10 June 1922),[1] a British civil engineer and novelist who wrote over 40 boys' adventure books, almost all of them in a nautical setting.
Collingwood was the eldest son of master mariner Captain William Lancaster (1813 – (1861 – 1871))[2] and Anne, née Cosens (c. 1820 – 9 October 1898).
Sarah Anne married Mathew Smellie in St Michaels, Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire on 30 June 1880.
[4][note 1] Collingwood's mother died at his home in Norwood on 9 October 1898, with her daughter Ada Louise as the executrix of her effects of £1,308 11s 11d.
[3] When Ada Louise died on 8 January 1929, her widowed sister Sarah Ann (with whom she was living) was the executrix for her effects of £1,907 16s 8d.
[16][17] This school had over 210 boys destined for careers at sea on the rolls by 1865[18] and trained officers and men for both the Royal Navy and Merchant Marine.
Kitzen states that Collingwood traveled widely in both his short naval and much longer civilian career.
He worked there in a range of posts until the end of 1870, by which time he was the Government Engineer and Surveyor for the Port District of Natal.
Returned to England, and now living in Norwood, London, Collingwood applied for associate membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 31 July 1889 and was elected on 3 December 1889.
In 1893 Collingwood was one of the three short-listed candidates from the 89 applicants for Resident Engineer at Llanelli Harbour, Carmarthenshire[25] but was unsuccessful.
One of her brothers, Sir Alfred James Rice-Oxley (25 January 1856 – 10 August 1941) was a physician to members of the Royal Family.
[37] Collingwood's first novel in 1878, the year of his marriage, was The Secret of the Sands, a tale of the sea with piracy and buried treasure thrown in.
This pseudonym was chosen by the author in homage to Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (whom Thackeray described as a virtuous Christian knight).
In 1913, Blackie was still offering 18 novels by Collingwood they had published over the previous two decades, and only one, An Ocean Chase was not included.
Engineers also appear as strong secondary characters in such stories as The Pirate Island (1884) and The Missing Merchantman (1888).
Ferreira examines some of the underlying prejudices displayed by Collingwood in Harry Escombe; a tale of adventure in Peru.
Other recurrent themes in Lancaster's novels include storms, shipwreck, being castaway, piracy, slavery, buried treasure, long voyages in open boats, disasters at sea, derelict ships, and pearl fishing.
The illustrations cover common themes in Collingwood's works: personal bravery, swimming, mutiny, fires at sea, piracy, treasure, voyages in open boats, and fighting sharks.
Nield, speaking of historical fiction, says that among the most deservedly popular of recent imaginative writers ... Of those who cater for young people, ... Harry Collingwood ... may be mentioned as having come well to the fore.
In The Cruise of the 'Nonsuch' Buccaneer for example, Drake's attack on San Juan is presented as Spanish treachery in violation of a truce rather than the blatant attempt to sack the city.
[63] As well as his solo writing Lancaster wrote one published work In the Power of the Enemy (1925) together with his son.
[33] The Ship of Silence is referenced on the title page of In the Power of the Enemy[66] – Percival wrote a short story under this name for MacLeans.
