Hugo Charteris

Hugo Francis Guy Charteris MC (11 December 1922 – 20 December 1970) was a noted British novelist and screenwriter, the author of nine novels, 17 television screenplays and numerous children's books and short stories. Early life Charteris was born in London, the fourth child of Captain Hon. Guy Lawrence Charteris (1886–1967, the son of Hugo Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss and Mary Constance Wyndham), and his first wife, Frances Lucy Tennant (1887–1925), a granddaughter of Sir Charles Tennant. His sister was the socialite Ann Fleming. He and his sisters grew up at Stanway House surrounded by the creative influence of close family friends such as James Barrie, who would write plays for them to perform during the summer months. Charteris was educated at Eton and in 1941 he left to join the Scots Guards. He was twice wounded in the war, and received a Military Cross in Italy for defending his position against continuous enemy attack. Career After the war, he went to Malaya and Java where he served as a public relations officer for south-east Asia command (1945–47). He then went to Oxford where he read English at Trinity College for a few frustrating terms (1947–48). In 1948 he married Virginia Mary (born 1922), daughter of Colin Forbes Adam and granddaughter of Beilby Lawley, 3rd Baron Wenlock. Together they had two sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Richard, drowned at their home in Scotland in 1951. Through his brother-in-law, newspaper baron Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere, he got work with the Daily Mail, where he was sub-editor until he was sent to Paris as second correspondent, mainly writing articles for the continental edition of the Mail.