Herbert, Sir Alan Patrick

(1890-1971)

   Born in Ashtead, Surrey, and educated at Winchester College, he graduated in jurisprudence from New College, Oxford, in 1914. He was wounded in 1917 while serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Re176 serve, and invalided home. He wrote regularly for Punch using the initials A.P.H., and wrote more than 50 books. He was famous for his witty championing of minority causes as well as revues, operettas, and a novel, The Water Gypsies (1930). The theme of his The Secret Battle (1919) is cowardice in war. His Misleading Cases (1927) drew attention to the anomalies within the law. As an independent member of Parliament for Oxford University (1935-1950), he introduced the Matrimonial Causes Bill, which was enacted in 1937. He was knighted in 1945. Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, made him an honorary doctor of laws in 1957, and Oxford University, a doctor of civil law, 1958. He died in London and his death was marked by speeches of condolence in the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. Some of his poems: "At the Theater," "Bacon and Eggs," "Mr. Churchill," "The Chameleon," "Triangular Legs," "'Twas at the Pictures, Child, We Met."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Favorite Poems Old and New. Helen Ferris, ed. Doubleday, 1957. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of English History in Verse. Kenneth Baker, ed. Faber and Faber, 1988. The Fireside Book of Humorous Poetry. William Cole, ed. Simon and Schuster, 1959. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. What Cheer: An Anthology of American and British Humorous and Witty Verse. David McCord, ed. Coward-McCann, 1945.