Everard Wyrall

[AGWR]

This man seems to have written a vast number of divisional and regimental histories. Does anyone know anything about the man and his life?

Regards,

AGWR

[Procat]

Hi AGWR,

See here:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...st&p=302924

Doug

[Robert Dunlop]

Doug, thanks very much for the pointer. Very interesting. Thanks for posting the question, AGWR. FWIIW, I did a quick check on Abebooks and didn't find anything published by Wyrall before 1914. I was wondering how he had developed his writing skills, which are very evident when you read his histories.

Robert

[AGWR]

Thanks for the replies. I had found the birth of Reginald Everard Wyrall in 1878, but I was not sure if it was the same man. I see now that his death was registered in Lambeth in the last quarter of 1932.

One questions, however, does occur to me: What happened to all the correspondence relating to these histories? Has it survived? And it is accessible to researchers?

Regards

AGWR

[Ian Riley]

Don't know about the correspondence, I am afraid, but he does appear to rely heavily on the battalion war diaries. He seems to have had other sources although the Official Histories had not got too far at the time of his death. One of the most impressive things about his King's Liverpool Regiment work is the way that he keeps so many battalions, in different areas and divisions, in the same time frame without losing the plot .. and all in the days before 'cut and paste'.

Ian

[Terry_Reeves]

I posted a brief biography of him, along with the titles of a number of his books. in the thread that the link above refers to.

TR

[JulianB]

The British Library catralogue (possibly a tad more comprehensive than abebooks) has 38 entries. I did notice a couple before 1914.

http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/MHJHXCX1RC8B91QHA...=short-previous

[Moonraker]

From The Times, January 26, 1933:

(I'm sure that I posted this scan last year, with a list of his works as held by the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, but I can't trace it using Search.)

Moonraker

[AGWR]

Thanks for all the replies. He certainly seems to have led an interesting life. I wonder if his death was linked to his military service.

Regards,

AGWR

[Robert Dunlop]

Thanks, JulianB. I can't access the link you posted because it requires a number and password, but it is interesting to know that his publishing career started before the war.

Robert

[JulianB]

Strange, I have BL as one of my favourites and went straight in. I do have a Readers Ticket but you don't need it when looking up catalogue details.

So, just try British Library, the link (via eg Google ??) should be easy enough to find.

[AGWR]

It's nice to see that someone is still reading (and writing about) his other books:

http://www.markfreeman.corporategovernance...g.uk/other.html

Regards,

AGWR

[Guest dianandavid]

Reginald Everard Wyrall was my Grandfather's brother. The family originally came to England from France with the Huguenots. Unfortunately I have not been able at the moment to gather any further information and my mother died some 15 years ago so I am unable to ask her. Reginald's father was a Photographer, and his grandfather an antiquarian. Everard was the maiden name of his mother. I hope you find this of interest. It was also good for me to find out about his writing achievements.

[AGWR]

Diana

Thanks for sharing that information with us. Very interesting, particularly the reason for his unusual forename.

Regards,

AGWR

[Guest]

Just to bump this topic again-  I have had occasion to use Wyrall's history of DCLI in the war and find it well written, as literary quality, wide-ranging and very balanced compared   to many others. But still don't know much about the man- Divorce 1919 on "Discovery"-and only a lowly 2Lt RASC during the war itself.  As a Devonian, I have always found Atkinson's "Devonshire Regiment in the War" something of an embarrassment-especially the gung-ho illustrations. Yet Wyrall's DCLI was a treat to  use and he must have used a great deal of material as the bits I wanted are only sparsely covered in the relevant DCLI war diary.  Intrigued as what his background as a military writer or commentator was.

    Plenty on Edmonds, the Offical Historian-and some of the others who were professional military historians. But Wyrall- any published accounts of his life??

[seaJane]

15 titles at the Bodleian Library as per COPAC http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/search?&author=Everard+Wyrall&heldat=Bodleian+Library&lib=Oxford+University (look at the drop-down menus for filtering down to holding libraries)

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, seaJane said:

15 titles at the Bodleian Library as per COPAC http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/search?&author=Everard+Wyrall&heldat=Bodleian+Library&lib=Oxford+University (look at the drop-down menus for filtering down to holding libraries)

 

  Yes- Lots of titles but little of the man!!  References on GWF to him using a team of researchers/writers-but who were they and where are the details?  One entry for him on a search of British Newspaper Archive shows a request for materials to be sent to him  re. his preparation of one of the "regimentals"-  (Kings Liverpool). Thus, I would have expected to find some reference at first looking- to the back-up papers of the regimentals that went out over his name. For instance, can any GWF member point to any bloc of material held by a regimental museum/archive that had come from Wyrall, his team,etc- in the preparation of his histories ?.

   I would have expected some references to his actual workings to have popped up in searches but so far a blank.

PS    He was in bankruptcy at time of death- and the 2 might be connected   -From the LG. There is a story to sniff out here-  Did he take the KLR regimental money, for instance?

 

No. 432. WYRALL, Reginald Everard, 61, Chancery Lane, and of The Authors Club. 2, Whitehall Court, London, S.W. AUTHOR. Court—HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. Date of Filing Petition—Aug. 10, 1932. No. of Matter—912 of 1932. Date of Receiving Order—Feb. 2, 1933. No. of Receiving Order—76. Whether Debtor's or Creditor's Petition— Creditor's. Act of Bankruptcy proved in Creditor's Petition —Section 1-1 (G.), Bankruptcy Act, 1914.

 

Edited 2 March , 2018 by Guest

[seaJane]

Sorry, V, I was posting this in reply to Moonraker's post above - should have quoted. 

 

His wife petitioned for restitution of conjugal rights before she petitioned for divorce ... http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=everard+wyrall

 

There are about a dozen references to his books in the Times Digital Archives online, from which I can see that he was published by quite an assortment: Thomas Nelson, Edward Arnold, Methuen. So it might be worth tracking down their archives for any correspondence.

 

Review in the Spectator http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-april-1930/30/captain-everard-wyrall-is-an-indefatigable-militar

An odd little escapade: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Wyrall/

 

The Authors' Club, of which he was a member, still exists, although I can't see an archivist: http://www.authorsclub.co.uk/?page_id=33

 

sJ

[Perth Digger]

The Spike is very interesting. Thanks seaJane.

 

Mike

[Moonraker]

One of several threads about Wyrall.

 

with some biographical information.

 

Moonraker

Edited 2 March , 2018 by Moonraker

[ianjonesncl]

On ‎05‎/‎01‎/‎2008 at 11:09, AGWR said:

One questions, however, does occur to me: What happened to all the correspondence relating to these histories? Has it survived? And it is accessible to researchers?

 

AGWR

 

One of the last Divisional histories written by Everard Wyrall was the 'The Fiftieth Division 1914-1919', the 50th Northumbrian Division.
 

From Regimental Archives I have type written accounts from officers of the 4th (Northumbrian) Brigade RFA TF which was headquartered in South Shields, Durham (now Tyne and Wear).  The two Batteries of the Brigade became D/250 and D/251 when the RFA re-organised in May 1916.

 

These accounts in many cases correspond verbatim with what is contained within Wyrall's 50th Divisional history. Whether the officers accounts were written specifically for Wyrall, or if he used some pre existing material (I suspect the latter) I do not know. I have a copy of the Naval and Military Press reprint which contains a note about the author stating it was the last book he wrote - "It is the simple truth that when the last sentence was written he closed his eyes and died". As he was in ill health when he started to write he book he may have had to rely on existing material.

 

The material in the Regimental Archives could be made available to researchers.

 

Ian

 

 

Edited 2 March , 2018 by ianjonesncl

[Guest]

  Jane- "Sorry" is never necessary- I believe Wyrall edited one of the war magazines through the war or just after-as well.  So he must have had some repute. The history of DCLI is about the best I have read in terms of literary quality and a variety of sources used.  

1 hour ago, ianjonesncl said:

The material in the Regimental Archives could be made available to researchers.

 

 

   Ian- Thank you. Again, I suspect that the deal may have been use of regimental records -but whether Wyrall acquired materials and then deposited them or just used what a regiment collected is a moot point. If you happen across any letter in the Northumbrian archives that might answer this, then please shout out. I was surprised when I ran London Gazette that he had been bankrupted-and so close to his death does suggest the possibility of suicide. As it is, then if the Kings Liverpool was unfinished and he had been commissioned to do it, then KLR records might have something about it-if any KLR activist is out there.

 

     Moonraker- Thank you- I see that Wyrall has come up several times-alas,with no real increase in the stock of information available.  Yes, "regimentals" and "divisionals" were an industry in the 1920s and some into the 1930s. I have some interest in HOW the process of "the history" of the war came to be as it is. And the differing styles of the many histories is something that intrigues me from the excrutiatingly boring ones which just replay the War Diary or that are written as staff officer exercises-to the gung-ho ones. I think my basic premise with all of these histories is that the better and more informative the history, the more that unit has been remembered subsequently. OK, seems obvious to us now but the range of perspective and information, let alone which units got what type of write-up does colour how we look at the history. A good regimental seems to flush out information  in later years-as it gives a good base, while units with either a poor history or none at all seem subsequently to have been harder to track in our times.  As a crude example- if there were 20 battalions in a sector during the battle of X-and ten have differing types of "regimental" and 10 have none, then it colours the way we remember what happened for the whole event.

 

     Of course, in the definitive absence of evidence to the contrary, one must always hope (albeit a chimera on most occasions), that somewhere there is a bloc of Everard Wyrall materials just waiting to be found.