Herbert Escott Inman was a British author of fairy tales and boys' adventure and school stories. He also wrote an account of the shipwreck of the Dundonald

Dundonald (ship)

The Dundonald was a steel, four-masted barque of 2205 tons, which was launched in Belfast in 1891. She was shipwrecked in 1907 in the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands...

 off Disappointment Island

Disappointment Island

Disappointment Island is one of seven uninhabited islands of the archipelago Auckland Islands. It is from the north-west end of Auckland Island and south of New Zealand. It is home to the White-capped Albatross. About 65,000 pairs - nearly the entire world population - nest on Disappointment...

 in 1907.

Life

He was born in Paddington

Paddington

Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...

, London, the second son of Robert Ford Inman (a clerk in an accountants office) and his wife Ann (née Bott). In the 1881 Census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, the family is shown as living in West Ham

West Ham

West Ham is in the London Borough of Newham in London, England. In the west it is a post-industrial neighbourhood abutting the site of the London Olympic Park and in the east it is mostly residential, consisting of Victorian terraced housing interspersed with higher density post-War social housing...

 and Herbert working as a chemist's assistant.

He married Clarissa Elizabeth Long in 1881 and had three children: Ivy Clarice, Herbert Ford and Frederick Seymour, all born in Dulwich

Dulwich

Dulwich is an area of South London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth...

. In the 1891 Census the family is shown as living in Camberwell

Camberwell

Camberwell is a district of south London, England, and forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is a built-up inner city district located southeast of Charing Cross. To the west it has a boundary with the London Borough of Lambeth.-Toponymy:...

, South London, and Inman is listed as a chemist's assistant and a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 Minister. In the 1901 Census he is listed as a Baptist Minister and Author.

Inman went on to write romance stories for the Sunday Companion paper. He also wrote Sexton Blake

Sexton Blake

Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who appeared in many British comic strips and novels throughout the 20th century. He was described by Professor Jeffrey Richards on the BBC in The Radio Detectives in 2003 as "the poor man's Sherlock Holmes"...

 stories for the Union Jack paper

Union Jack (magazine)

- Introduction :There were two story papers called Union Jack. The first appeared in the 1880s but was only very short-lived. The name was then used by Alfred Harmsworth in 1894 for a new halfpenny storypaper intended as a companion to the successful Halfpenny Marvel.Harmsworth considered it his...

 in 1913-14 which introduce the character of Henri 'The Snake' Garrock.

He died in 1915, at Herne Hill

Herne Hill

Herne Hill is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. There is a road of the same name which continues the A215 north of Norwood Road and was called Herne Hill Road.-History:...

, aged 54.

His son Herbert Ford Inman also became a writer.

Selected works by Herbert Escott Inman

• The Admiral and I: A fairy story. (1902)

• The Castaways of Disappointment Island. Illustrations by Ernest Prater
  Ernest Prater
  Ernest Prater was a noted English artist and book illustrator, notable also for his work as a war correspondent and reportage artist during the Anglo-Boer War.-Life and works:...
  
  . (1911)

• David Chester's Motto. “Honour Bright”: A boy's adventures at school and at sea, etc. (1904)

• The Did of Didn't-Think: A fairy story for boys and girls. Illustrations by W. Tayler. (1913)

• Gobbo Bobo the two-eyed griffin. Illustrations by E.A. Mason. (1900)

• Love first : A splendid complete story. (c1910)]

• Loyal and true. (1905)

• Mary True: Mill lass. (1910)

• The Mill-Lass of Idderleigh. Illustrations by G. H. Evison. (1908)

• The Nidding Nod of Once-upon-a-time. (1901)

• The one-eyed griffin and other fairy stories. Illustrations by E. A. Mason. (1897)

• The owl king and other fairy stories. Illustrations by E. A. Mason. (1898)

• The Pattypats. (1898)

• The quest of Douglas Holms. Illustrations by Arthur Twidle
  Arthur Twidle
  Arthur Twidle was an English illustrator and artist best known for his illustrations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books....
  
  . (1908)

• The Saga of Jarl the Neatherd. (1903)

• The Second Form Master of St. Cyril's. Illustrations by R. Potter. (1905)

• Sybil Darley. (1910)

• The tear of Kalee. (With H. Aspden.) (1902)

• Up the spider's web: A fairy folk fancy. (1893)

• What shall it profit? (1910)

• Wulnoth the wanderer: A story for boys. (1908 )

Sources

• Steve Holland. Herbert F. Inman, 8 June, 2007 http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2007/06/herbert-f-inman.html

• British 1881, 1891 and 1911 Censuses

• Copac National, Academic, and Specialist Library Catalogue http://copac.ac.uk/