Basil Boothroyd

John Basil Boothroyd (4 March 1910 – 27 February 1988) was an English humorous writer, best known for his long association with Punch. As a young man he worked for a bank, but began contributing articles to Punch, and became its assistant editor, a post in which he served for eighteen years. His career as a writer for Punch spanned the editorships of E. V. Knox to Alan Coren. Boothroyd’s chief literary work outside the comic essay was an official biography of Prince Philip undertaken at the request of its subject. Boothroyd also wrote for television and radio, and was a frequent broadcaster.

Boothroyd was born in Worksop, England, son of James and Sarah Jackson Boothroyd (née Binch). He later said of his birthplace,"You can either call it the middle of the Nottinghamshire coalfield or the beautiful Sherwood Forest according to what sort of article you are writing." James Boothroyd was a man of diverse trades, whom Boothroyd later remembered accompanying on clock-winding visits to great houses. Boothroyd was educated at Lincoln Cathedral Choir School and Lincoln School. In 1927 he became a bank clerk (it was later a source of pleasure to him that P G Wodehouse had started his working career similarly) and in his spare time he played the saxophone in a band called 'The Synco Peppers' and was a part-time repertory actor for the St Pancras People's Theatre.

While still working as a bank clerk he started writing for Punch in 1938, and during World War II he continued to contribute, using his experiences in the RAF as source material. At first he was an instructor in the RAF Police and was later commissioned, becoming personal assistant to the Provost Marshal. He was demobilised in 1946 with the rank of flight lieutenant. His books about service life included Home Guard Goings-On, Adastral Bodies, Are Sergeants Human? and Are Officers Necessary?

Back in civilian life, he resumed his double-harness career with the bank and Punch, but in 1952 he was appointed full-time assistant editor of the magazine. Malcolm Muggeridge who became editor in 1953 insisted on a less cosy style of writing ("No more articles about Celia and the washing-up"), and Boothroyd, according to The Times "chafed at … having to mount an attack on people whose only offence was to have been in the headlines that week, and much preferred chronicling the waywardness of common things or the vagaries of commuting."

...
Wikipedia