WAS
W.E. JOHNS REALLY A CAPTAIN?
No.
That’s the simple answer to that one.
“The Captain part of it, I may say, he supplied himself ………”
(A line written by W. E. Johns, no doubt with a wry smile, in
the 1950 story “The Renegade” collected in “Biggles Takes the Case” in 1952)
The
Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force on 1st April
1918. On 20th July 1918, W.
E. Johns was confirmed in his rank as a 2nd Lieutenant when he
served in the First World War. He
remained in the RAF until 11th April 1919 when he was transferred to
the Unemployed List, meaning he had no claim to pay and allowances. It was not until 23rd November
1920, that Johns was reinstated on the Active List and promoted to the new RAF
rank of Flying Officer, the equivalent of a full Lieutenant.
You can see the London Gazette entry from 30th November
1920 showing W.E. Johns promotion from Pilot Officer to Flying Officer and the
London Gazette entry from 22nd December 1931 showing that W. E.
Johns relinquishes his commission but is permitted to keep his rank (of Flying
Officer) at the bottom of this page.
In
the brilliant Johns biography by Peter Beresford Ellis
and Jennifer Schofield,
Chapter 11 “The Militant Pacifist” commences as follows:-
“By the end of 1932 it seems that Johns
had given himself a small promotion; from Flying Officer to Captain. It is, of course, as Captain W. E. Johns that
he has become world famous. However,
when he left the Royal Air Force he was a Flying Officer, the equivalent to the
army rank of a full Lieutenant. In later
years, explaining why he was a Captain when there was no such rank in the RAF,
Johns told those who enquired that it was his old RAF rank. According to Boys’ Own Paper editor Jack Cox,
“
… his rank of Captain was never an Army title but a Royal Flying Corps
distinction and he was immensely proud of it.
To this day he still uses it as much as ever. I would never dream of publishing a story or
serial of his except under the by-line “Captain W. E. Johns”. But when the Royal Flying Corps merged with
the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force, Johns only held the
rank of 2nd Lieutenant. It
seems that Johns felt that the title Captain would have a more immediate appeal
to his younger readers. It sounded more
dignified, more assured, and his youthful audience would know what a Captain
was, but might not be sure about a Flying Officer – a rank scarcely a decade
old. Thus, the December 1932 issue of
Popular Flying was able to advertise The Camels are Coming (published by plain
W.E. Johns) and The Pictorial Flying Course (published with the by-line Flying
Officer W.E. Johns) as being by Captain W. E. Johns. No one seemed to notice the discrepancy. Throughout the 1930s, Johns used the by-line
which was to become world-famous with a cheerful inconsistency. For his adult work, books as well as
magazines, he used simply W. E. Johns, but for his juvenile markets, right up
until the end of 1939, he wavered between the titles Flying Officer and
Captain”.
Below
is a link where you can see a letter from W. E. Johns himself, written to
Lutterworths, where he criticises the standard of their work for him – and he
is especially annoyed that they credited him as plain old W. E. Johns rather
than Captain W. E. Johns on their Worrals books ……
http://www.wejohns.com/Captain/180
PW 6_7_49 C - W E JOHNS LETTER TO LUTTERWORTHS.jpg
WHEN DID JOHNS START USING THE TITLE “CAPTAIN”
W.E. JOHNS IN HIS ACTUAL WRITING?
When Johns wrote his first
article for ‘My Garden’,
published in May 1936, he was just plain old W. E. Johns but by his October
1936 article he was Captain W.E. Johns.
When Johns wrote his first
article for ‘Men Only’,
published in November 1936 he was Captain W. E. Johns.
So when was the earliest use of
the title, “Captain” as credited on his written work, as opposed to just the
advert in the December 1932
issue of Popular Flying?
The first Biggles books
published to refer to him as “Captain” were BIGGLES HITS THE TRAIL and BIGGLES FLIES EAST, both
published in August 1935.
These had originally been
published in “The Modern Boy”
magazine. TRAIL was published between 22nd
June and 24th August 1935 and EAST between 28th September
and 28th December 1935. In
these original publications he was created as “Flying Officer” W. E. Johns (his
real rank). In fact in ‘Modern Boy’
Johns was ALWAYS created as “Flying Officer” (sometimes hyphenated and
sometimes not) right up until the last part of Castle Sinister (Biggles’ Secret Agent) published
on 14th October 1939.
When BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY and BIGGLES IN FRANCE were first
published by the Boys’ Friend Library in March and November 1935
(respectively), Johns was “Flying Officer”.
The earlier title hyphenated and the latter not. All other Boys’ Friend Library reprints of
Johns’ stories, published from 1938 onwards, were credited as “Captain”.
Johns’ last book published
under the name “Flying Officer” W. E. Johns was ‘Modern
Boy’s Book of Pirates’ in September 1939.
All of Johns’ contributions
to the ‘Boy’s Own Paper’ and the ‘Girl’s Own Paper’ were always under the
title of Captain. His first article for
‘Girl’s Own Paper’ was in April 1934.
When Johns first wrote for AIR STORIES in Jan, Feb & March
1936 he was just W. E. Johns but his stories published in this magazine in Sept
and Nov 1936 were credited as “Captain”
When Johns wrote articles for
MINE magazine in March and June 1936
he was credited as “Captain”.
When Johns wrote the
“Steeley” stories for “THE THRILLER”
he was “Flying-Officer” Johns until October 1936. By January 1937 he was “Captain” W.E. Johns.
When Johns first wrote for
the “Air Defence Cadet Corps
Gazette” in August 1940 he was credited as “Captain”.
In “WINGS QUARTERLY MAGAZINE”
first published by John
Hamilton Ltd in 1934, Johns is credited as “Captain”. This magazine ran to four issues.
Wings – Quarterly Magazine – Summer 1934 – Vol. 1 No.
1 (published 29th June 1934)
which contained the stories
‘All’s Fair’ and ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ and an article called ‘The World on
the Wing’. Johns is credited as
“Captain” on all of these.
Wings – Quarterly Magazine – Autumn 1934 – Vol. 1 No.
2 (published 1st October 1934)
which contained the story “The Raid”. “This
story by that popular author, Capt. W.E. Johns, is placed in Iraq, a country
that he knows well. The Armistice found
him a prisoner of war and shortly after his return to England he was posted to
Iraq, where served for some years”. (The
subtitle is interesting as Johns’ biographers could find no trace of his
service in Iraq and they speculated that he may have “gilded the lily” and made
that up. Just as an aside, I personally
believe that he did serve there, as his frequent descriptions of the Middle
East are so good in his books. Also he
gives accounts of things he specifically did there, which I do not think are
bare faced lies. I would love to find
proof of his service in the Middle East – if anyone out there knows anything
further about Johns’ service in the Middle East, please e-mail me).
Wings – Quarterly Magazine – Winter 1935 – Vol. 1 No.
3 (published 1st January 1935)
which contained the story
‘Strange Freight’. Johns is credited as “Captain”.
Wings – Quarterly Magazine – Spring 1935 – Vol. 1 No.
4 (published 1st April 1935)
which contained the stories ‘V.C.’s Won in the Air’
and ‘The Dawn of Aviation’ again as “Captain”.
So the April 1934 article for
‘Girl’s Own Paper’ appears to be the
earliest credited reference to W.E. Johns
as a “Captain” on his actual writing. Unless
somebody else can find an earlier one?
ROGER HARRIS, Originally written 5th April
2014 but revised and updated 17th July 2020
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