Leo Walmsley

Born in 1892 in Shipley, West Yorkshire, he grew up in Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire coast. One of five children he was christened Lionel, he was a scholarship boy and after leaving school he taught for a while. During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps winning the Military Cross. His experiences during the war left there mark and he was determined to become a writer.

Walmsley craved adventure and lived on the move with his first wife, rarely staying anywhere more than six months. The marriage failed and in the 1930’s he settled in Fowey with his second wife. Living in a rented old army green roofed hut just off Pont Creek. It was here he was to write the first of his novels about Yorkshire in the Bramblewick series.

In 1934 he returned to Yorkshire, later moving to South Wales. During this period wrote ‘Love in the Sun’ a fictional account of his escape to Cornwall and the idyllic years bringing up his young family. It was welcomed to wide acclaim and Walmsley hoped for a best seller but sadly the war intervened.

He stayed in Wales during the war but by the end his marriage was failing and he was to be divorced for a second time. In the early 1950’s he again returned to the old army hut on Pont Creek.

In Fowey he met his third wife, Stephanie, marring in 1955 with their daughter Selina born the following year. Bad weather and Selina’s winter chest infections necessitated a move and they reluctantly moved across to a house in North Street on Reith Terrrace which they appropriately named Bramblewick. During this time in Fowey Leo became an integral part of the town’s social life and a good friend of Daphne du Maurier. He also wrote ‘Paradise Creek’, a sequel to ‘Love in the Sun’, immortalising the story of Leo and Stephanie.

During his lifetime he wrote some 200 short stories many of which are largely autobiographical. He died in Fowey in 1966.
For further information visit www.walmsleysoc.org

His works include:
1914 Guide to the Geology of Whitby and District
1919 Fossils of the Whitby District
1920 Flying and Sport in East Africa
1921 The Silver Blimp
1923 The Lure of Thunder Island
1926 The Green Rocket
1926 Toro of the Little People
1932 Three Fevers
1933 Phantom Lobster
1935 Foreigners
1939 Love in the Sun
1941 Fishermen at War
1942 British Ports and Harbours
1944 So Many Loves (autobiography)
1944 Sally Lunn (the play)
1948 Master Mariner
1951 Lancashire and Yorkshire
1952 Invisible Cargo
1954 The Golden Waterwheel
1957 The Happy Ending
1959 Sound of the Sea
1963 Paradise Creek
1965 Angler's Moon