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Oliver Warner#Works

{{Short description|British naval historian and writer}}

{{for|the Massachusetts clergyman, politician and librarian|Oliver Warner (politician)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Oliver Martin Wilson Warner (28 February 1903 – 14 August 1976) was a well-known British naval historian and writer.

Life and career

Warner was born in 1903 and educated at Denstone College and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1926, he succeeded Frank Swinnerton as staff reader at the publishing house of Chatto and Windus. In addition to his work as staff reader he also worked on the company's advertising material. As a young man he made contributions to magazines such as The Spectator and Time and Tide, some of which were later reproduced in his 1947 book Captains and Kings. In 1939, he published an account of his visit to an "unworldly" relative in Canada, entitled Uncle Lawrence.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Mr Oliver Warner: Distinguished naval historian |department=Obituaries |date=18 August 1976 |page=14 |issue=59785 |column=F }} During the Second World War he joined the Admiralty secretariat, initially serving in the Commission and Warrant (C.W.) branch{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} before serving on the war artists advisory committee. He later served as secretary to the naval honours and awards committee.

After the war he became deputy director of publications of the British Council, where he remained until his retirement in 1963. He worked thereafter at Chatto and Windus for another year before concentrating on writing. By the time of his death he had more than twenty books in print. He married twice, first to Dorothea Blanchard who died in 1937, by whom he had one daughter. He was married secondly to Elizabeth Strahan, with whom he had one son and one daughter.

Warner died at his home, Old Manor Cottage, Haslemere, on 14 August 1976.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Deaths |department=Deaths |date=18 August 1976 |page=22 |issue=59785 |column=C }} A memorial service was held on 21 October (Trafalgar Day) at St. Lawrence Jewry-next-Guildhall church. As well as family members, the naval historians Professor Christopher Lloyd and Captain Stephen Roskill were in attendance, among others.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Deaths |department=Deaths |date=22 October 1976 |page=18 |issue=59841 |column=D }}

Works

Footnotes

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Bibliography

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  • {{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Deaths |department=Deaths |date=18 August 1976 |page=22 |issue=59785 |column=C }}
  • {{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Deaths |department=Deaths |date=22 October 1976 |page=18 |issue=59841 |column=D }}
  • {{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Mr Oliver Warner: Distinguished naval historian |department=Obituaries |date=18 August 1976 |page=14 |issue=59785 |column=F }}

{{refend}}

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Category:1903 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:People educated at Denstone College

Category:20th-century British writers

Category:British naval historians

Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Category:20th-century British historians