Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat was born on 22 March 1910 in Liverpool, England, the fourth child of Keith and Ada Monsarrat. His birth certificate records his surname as Montserrat as this was his mother’s preferred spelling of the name.
Monsarrat referred to his time at school, first at St Christopher’s School for Boys in Cheshire and then at Winchester College, as his “season in hell” because he suffered at the hands of bullies. Following a law degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, he joined a firm of solicitors in Nottingham.
But Monsarrat preferred writing to the law and soon left the firm for London. He spent his time there writing magazine articles and novels, joining pacifist marches and selling the left-wing Daily Worker newspaper on the streets.
His first three novels and his only play, The Visitor, did not create much of an impact, but Monsarrat’s fourth novel, This is the Schoolroom, was a critical success and sold out its original print run. This success may have continued but the outbreak of the Second World War put his writing career on hold.
Monsarrat’s pacifist views led him to join the St John Ambulance Brigade at the start of the war, but he applied for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1940. He spent the rest of the war commanding corvettes and frigates on escort duties in the Atlantic and he fictionalised his experiences in three short stories that were published together as Three Corvettes in 1945.
From 1946 to 1953 Monsarrat was the director of the UK information office in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was during this time that he achieved his greatest success as a novelist. The Cruel Sea, the story of the experiences of a naval officer during the Second World War, was published in 1951 and won Monsarrat the Heinemann award for literature in 1952. Jack Hawkins starred in the film version of The Cruel Sea in 1953.
During the years 1953 to 1956 Monsarrat was the British information officer in Ottawa, Canada. In 1956 he left to continue his writing career and produced novels influenced by his time in South Africa, including The Tribe that Lost its Head, and more sea adventure stories such as The Ship that Died of Shame.
The autobiography of his life to 1956, Life is a Four-Letter Word, was published in two volumes in 1966 and 1970 and as an abridged version, Breaking In, Breaking Out, in 1971. Monsarrat’s final work, The Master Mariner, the tale of a sailor condemned to spend eternity at sea, remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1979.
Monsarrat had been living on the island of Malta with his third wife, Ann Griffiths (he had previously been married to Eileen Rowland, 1939 to 1952, and Philippa Crosby, 1952 to 1961), since the end of the 1960s. When his health deteriorated they returned to London where he died of cancer on 8 August 1979. Nicholas Monsarrat was cremated at Golders Green and his ashes were scattered at sea by the Royal Navy.
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I am an avid collector of rare and out-of-print books and have in my possession a book by Nicholas Monsarrat,titled ‘ The tribe that lost its head’. What is interesting about the book is what I found between the pages – some brownish-blondish hair (more brown than blond) and I am intrigued to know what was the colour of the author’s head of hair. It’s really weird to find something like this between the pages plus that the inside of the first page has a large ‘X’ marked with a blue pen at the top-right corner. It’s a first edition, published in 1956 with a dustcover over a dark green clothed hardcover. Printed in Great Britain by Ebenzer Baylis And Son, Ltd., The Trinity Press, Worcester And London. Publisher – Cassell & Co Ltd, London.Can someone please help me with this? If it is the author’s hair, then my book is seriously invaluable.
I was in the Royal Navy on HMS Scylla when we had the task of committing Nicholas Monsarrat’s Ashes to the sea, I was ships photographer and was asked to take photographs of the ceremony and the film was sent to his relatives. I remember they put them in an ammunition box and slid it down a wooden board made for the job, the sailors that made the board were worried that the board, newly varnished wouldn’t dry in time and that the box would stick at the critical moment, but all went smoothly on the day.
In reply to B Staite
In 1974 – 1975 I was a student in Montreal and went to Dalhousie University in Halifax Canada for my MBA.
I rented a room from Phiippa. I recall she was a bright and gregarious woman. And, there was a constant flow of interesting people through the house including many actors. I recall meeting the Canadian actor Colin Fox.
Philippa was also a good cook which was fortunate for me as a young student. She often has something waiting for me when I got home.
I think I also met her son Anthony there.
I believe Philippa passed away in Halifax a number of years ago, but I cannot recall when.
Does anyone know of the second marriage or the second wife Phillipa Crosby ???
The only information I have is that Philippa Crosby was a South African journalist and that the 1952-1961 marriage produced two sons.
we spend a lot of time on Anglesey (North Wales)…and I have heard that Nicholas Monsarrat spent sometime durng his childhood at a rather spectacular ‘Mansion’ on the coastlne of Treaddur Bay…..can you please give me any information ….?
The Monsarrat country home, Hafod House, was situated at Trearddur Bay on Holy Island, just off the west coast of the main island of Anglesey (see map). It was during summers spent there that the young Nicholas developed his love of the sea and sailing, and the skills he learned there enabled him to join the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve after seeing an advertisement for ‘gentlemen with yachting experience’ in 1940.
Monsarrat’s memories of the family home were not all happy ones, however, as it was there that his elder brother died after falling from a cliff in 1908. Hafod House is now available to rent as a holiday cottage.