Richard Usborne
| Richard Alexander Usborne | |
|---|---|
| Born |
16 May 1910 Shimla, India |
| Died | 21 March 2006 (aged 95) London |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Advertising executive, journalist, editor, author |
| Known for | Scholar of P. G. Wodehouse |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | Two |
Richard Alexander Usborne (16 May 1910 – 21 March 2006), or simply Dick Usborne, was a journalist, advertising executive and author. He is widely regarded as the leading scholar of the life and works of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975).
Richard Usborne was born on 16 May 1910 at Simla, in British India, the son of a civil servant. He was educated in England at Summer Fields Preparatory school, Charterhouse School and then Balliol College, Oxford.
After failing to enter the Indian Civil Service because of a heart murmur, Usborne began work in advertising, before founding with three friends a listings magazine London Week. This still survives as What's On although he was nearly responsible for its bankruptcy when the magazine was sued by a restaurant for libel because of an observation he made in a review of it. The magazine was sold and Usborne re-entered the advertising profession. In 1938, he married Monica Stuart MacArthur, originally from New Mexico.
In 1939, Usborne was recruited by the Special Operations Executive and began work in Beirut, spreading pro-Allied propaganda. He was later recalled home and spent the remainder of the war working for the Political Warfare Executive.
In 1948, he became assistant editor of the Strand Magazine, then edited by Macdonald Hastings. The Strand was well known for first publishing the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle and later the stories of P. G. Wodehouse. However, by the late–1940's it was suffering from falling circulation and rising costs; it published its final issue in March 1950. Usborne then worked on the Leader Magazine before going back to work in advertising. He continued in this field for the rest of his career, eventually becoming a director of the advertising company, Graham and Gillies.
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