Harry Collingwood was the pseudonym of William Joseph Cosens Lancaster, a British civil engineer and novelist who wrote over 40 boys' adventure books, almost all of them in a nautical setting.
24 Facts About Harry Collingwood
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Harry Collingwood's birth certificate shows that he was born in Weymouth, Dorset on 23 May 1843 at 9:30am at Concord Place.
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Harry Collingwood was the first of three children for the couple.
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Kirk states that Harry Collingwood attended the Royal Naval School, which was at New Cross, near Greenwich.
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In Collingwood's first book The Secret of the Sands the hero, called Harry Collingwood, was educated at the Royal Naval School at Greenwich.
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Harry Collingwood joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman at 15.
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Kitzen states that Harry Collingwood traveled widely in both his short naval and much longer civilian career.
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Alan Rice-Oxley 8.
Harry Collingwood continued in Dorset until March 1864 and then moved to Durban in South Africa.
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Harry Collingwood 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.
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Harry Collingwood returned to the UK in 1871 and worked on an eight-mile section of the Devon to London Railway for two years.
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Harry Collingwood continued in the UK, working on a range of projects including harbour works in the Isle of Man, as well as work at Burntisland on the Firth of Forth, where he lived in 1880, while advertising in Coleraine in Northern Ireland, for accommodation for himself, his wife, and infant son.
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Harry Collingwood travelled to the Baltic, Mediterranean, and the East Indies.
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In 1893 Harry Collingwood was one of the three short-listed candidates from the 89 applicants for Resident Engineer at Llanelli Harbour, Carmarthenshire but was unsuccessful.
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On 10 July 1878, at Conisborough near Doncaster, Harry Collingwood married Kezia Hannah Rice Oxley, the fourth child of George Oxley, a provisions dealer, and Mary Rice.
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Harry Collingwood's nephew Alan Rice-Oxley was a flying ace in World War I, and Alan's sister married Kezia's only son in 1906.
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Harry Collingwood followed his father's example, not only becoming a Civil Engineer but a novelist.
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Harry Collingwood died suddenly at his sister Sarah's house at 40 Liverpool Road, Chester on 10 June 1922, only five days after the death of Sarah's husband.
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Harry Collingwood then repaid the favour by teaching W G Collingwood's grandchildren, the five Altouyans, to sail in "Swallow II" in 1928.
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Harry Collingwood was popular, and his novels remained in print for a long time.
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In 1913, Blackie was still offering 18 novels by Harry Collingwood they had published over the previous two decades, and only one, An Ocean Chase was not included.
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Dizer notes that Harry Collingwood's books were being re-issued in England through at least 1939.
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Dizer notes that apart from the three science fictions stories about the Flying Fish Harry Collingwood's books are mainly sea stories of young English heroes.
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The hero in Harry Collingwood Escombe; a tale of adventure in Peru was an engineering surveyor.
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Harry Collingwood was in Toronto with his son at the time.