Peter Cheyney

Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse Cheyney (22 February 1896 – 26 June 1951), known as Peter Cheyney,

British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951.

Cheyney is perhaps best-known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy Caution, which, starting in 1953, were adapted into a series of French movies, all starring Eddie Constantine.

Born in 1896, the youngest of five children, and educated at the Mercers' School in the City of London. He began to write skits for the theatre as a teenager, but this ended when the First World War began.

In 1915 he enlisted in the British Army as a volunteer, in 1916 was wounded on active service and published two volumes of poetry, Poems of Love and War and To Corona and Other Poems. The next year, 1917, his military service ended.

WW1

From http://www.petercheyney.co.uk/Cheyney%20Site/life2.html

"...Reggie, aged 19, left on 7 June 1915 to train for the army. By virtue of his short spell in a law firm he joined the Inns of Court Regiment and spent three months basic training in the grounds of Lord Brownlow’s estate at Berkhampsted. Here he found a real-life hero in the shape of Captain Evelyn à Court Bergne. The appreciation was mutual, Captain Bergne promoting Cheyney and putting him forward for officer training – Cheyney, in one of many self re-inventions, adopted the captain’s first name to become Evelyn Southouse Cheyney (later he even added a hyphen to the surnames).
He was shipped over to Flanders, transferred to near the Somme in 1916, wounded, promoted to full lieutenant and given a job in the Labour Corps Records Office in Nottingham in July 1917. His work was dull, but it did bring him into contact with great material for future characters in the dossiers of the renegade soldiers.
Cheyney turned to poetry, as many writers did at this time, even having two volumes, Poems of Love and War and To Corona and Other Poems published in 1916. But it is generally accepted that his was very bad poetry indeed."

From https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk (subscription needed)

• First Name: R.S
• Surname: Cheyney
• Nationality: British
• Information: Assistant Officer. Class HH on 3rd February 1918
• Rank: Lieutenant
• Service: British Army
• Regiment: Labour Corps
• Battalion: 4th Battalion
• Seniority Date: 03/08/17
• Collection: UK Army List 1918

Late in the 1920s he worked for the Metropolitan Police as a police reporter and crime investigator.

He "was a fencer of repute, a golfer, a crack pistol-shot, and a jiu-jitsu expert."

He married three times:

• 1919 to the stage actress Dorma Leigh,

Marriages Dec 1919

• Cheyney Evelyn S Woodley St. Giles 1b 1314
  
• Cheyney Reginald E P S Woodley St. Giles 1b 1314
  
• Woodley Dorothy M Cheyney St.Giles 1b 1314
  

• 1934 to Kathleen Nora Walter Taberer,

Marriages Dec 1934

• Cheyney Reginald E F S Walter Kensington 1a 426
  
• Cheyney Reginald E F S Taberer Kensington 1a 426
  
• Taberer Kathleen N Cheyney Kensington 1a 426
  
• Walter Kathleen N Cheyney Kensington 1a 426
  

• 1948 to Lauretta Singer Groves.

Marriages Dec 1948

• Cheyney Peter Singer Westminster 5c 820
  
• Cheyney Peter Groves Westminster 5c 820
  
• Cheyney Reginald E P L Singer
  
• Cheyney Reginald E P L Groves Westminster
  
• Groves Loretta T Cheyney Westminster 5c 820
  
• Singer Loretta T Cheyney Westminster 5c 820
  

He had no children.

WW2

Cheyney registered for the forces at the start of WW2, but was deemed unfit for active duty. He joined the 1st County of London Battalion of the Home Guard – “Dad’s Army”. He became Captain and then Major Cheyney and revelled in the role.

From https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk (subscription needed)

• First Name: R S
• Surname: Cheyney
• Resided Town: The County Of London T A & A F Association, Duke Of York's Headquarters, Chelsea, S W 3
• Nationality: British
• Further Information: 01/02/41
• Rank: Captain
• Service From Date: 1941
• Duty Location: South West Sub
• Service: Home Guard
• The Home Guard was operational from 1940 to 1944, and was set up by the British Army during the Second World War. The nickname "Dad's Army" was due to the average age of the local volunteers who signed up for The Home Guard, who were ineligible for military service, usually because of their age. Originally called "Local Defence Volunteers" or LDV, the Home Guard's role was to defend British coastal areas, airfields, factories and explosives stores in the case of invasion by German forces and their allies.
• Unit: 2nd County of London (Chelsea & Kensington) Battalion (Why is this important?)
• Collection: Home Guard Officer Lists 1939-45

A 1954 biography of Cheyney, Peter Cheyney: Prince of Hokum, was written by Michael Harrison. (London: N. Spearman, 1954.)

Cheyney published a semi-autobiographical volume, Making Crime Pay and after his death at least two biographical essays appeared in posthumous collections. An essay by Viola Garvin, "Peter Cheyney" appears in Velvet Johnnie a posthumous collection of Cheyney's short stories (London: Collins, 1952, pages 7–32). The other essay is anonymous. It appears in the Cheyney collection Calling Mr. Callaghan (London: Todd, 1953, pages 7–16).

Sources and References

• http://www.petercheyney.co.uk/
• http://www.petercheyney.co.uk/Cheyney%20Site/life.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cheyney
• http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2015/26/141835043_1422356393.jpg
• http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C07E1DB123FE73ABC4F...

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DEPOT NAB SOURCE MSCE TYPE LEER SYSTEM 01 REFERENCE 1326/1974 PART 1 DESCRIPTION CHEYNEY, KATHLEEN NORAH. ALSO KNOWN AS CHEYNEY, KATHLEEN NORA.

(FORMERLY WALTER, FORMERLY MAYNARD, BORN TABERER). BORN IN SALISBURY, RHODESIA. DIVORCED. PREDECEASED SPOUSE WALTER, GERALD LEWIS. NO TRACE. PREDECEASED SPOUSE CHEYNEY, REGINALD EVELYN PETER SOUTHOUSE. NO TRACE - DIED 1952. DECEASED ESTATE. STARTING 19740000 ENDING 19750000