British children's writer (1909–1982)
Ronald Oliver Felton TD (14 December 1909 – 5 February 1982[1]), who wrote under the pseudonym Ronald Welch, was a Welsh novelist. He is best known for children's historical fiction. He won the 1956 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for the year's best children's book by a British author, for Knight Crusader, the first in his so-called Carey Family series of novels.[2]
Life
He was born in Aberavon, West Glamorgan.[1] He was teaching at Bedford Modern School when the Second World War broke out. In 1940 he was commissioned lieutenant in the Welch Regiment, to which his pen name refers. He reached the rank of major and stayed in the Territorial Army after the war. He was for many years headmaster of Okehampton Grammar School in Devon.
Welch's final work, The Road to Waterloo, not strictly speaking part of the Carey family saga but closely connected to it in terms of subject matter, remained unpublished at the time of his death. It was not until 2018 that it was discovered among his papers and published in a special edition by Smith Settle.[3]
Carey family saga
Notes
- The Carey family home is at Llansteffan Castle (or Llanstephan), Carmarthenshire, Wales. The house may be based on Plas Llanstephan.
- The home of the junior branch of the Carey family (descended from Rupert Carey) is at Horton Hall, on the Gower.
- The Carey family has a long-standing connection with the d'Assailly family of France. Neil and Richard Carey (and probably others) married a d'Assailly. The head of the family is the Marquis de Vernaye and the family home is near Graye-sur-Mer (see Escape From France).
- The heir to the Earl (usually his eldest son) has the title Viscount Cilfrew (Cilfrew is a village near Neath, Glamorgan). Holders of the title mentioned include Denzil and Bernard Carey.
- The books do not indicate a connection to the Scottish Duke of Aubigny.
- The Carey coat-of-arms is a black hawk on a yellow background (see Bowman of Crecy, For the King).
- Nicholas Carey/Ensign Carey and The Hawk/The Galleon are the only books that cover the same periods of time.
- The books contain explicit dates and historical events so the time period covered is usually easy to calculate
Books
Family members
Military service
Works
Books
- The Black Car Mystery (1950)
- The Clock Stood Still (1951)
- The Gauntlet (1951)
- Knight Crusader † (1954) —winner of the Carnegie Medal[2]
- Sker House (novel) (1955) (writing as Ronald Felton) (based on Sker House)
- Ferdinand Magellan (1955)
- Captain of Dragoons † (1956)
- "The Long Bow" (1957, booklet consisting of the abridged first three chapters of Bowman of Crécy)
- Mohawk Valley † (1958)
- Captain of Foot † (1959)
- Escape from France † (1960)
- For the King † (1961)[c]
- Nicholas Carey † (1963)
- Bowman of Crécy † (1966)
- The Hawk † (1967)
- Sun of York (1970)
- The Galleon † (1971)
- Tank Commander † (1972)
- Zulu Warrior (1974)
- Ensign Carey † (1976)
- The Road to Waterloo † (2018) (posthumous)
† indicates a book in the Carey family series
Short stories
- "The Kings Hunt" (1963), Swift Annual 1963[c]
- "The Joust" (1968), Miscellany Five, edited by Edward Blishen[a]
- "The King's Hunt" (1970), Thrilling Stories of the Past for Boys, edited by Eric Duthie[c]
Notes
- ^ a b Miscellany Five, edited by Edward Blishen (Oxford, 1968), includes a Ronald Welch short story "The Joust", which has as one of its characters Philip d'Aubigny the Crusader, hero of Knight Crusader. The hero, Owen, comes to the favourable attention of Sir Philip and becomes his squire.
- ^ a b Bowman of Crécy and The Galleon include but do not feature members of the Carey family.
- ^ a b c d The 1970 short story entitled "The King's Hunt" is set at the 17th century English Civil War battle of Edgehill and Neil Carey appears in it, so it aligns with For the King.
(Neil Carey does not appear in a 1963 story with the same title, published in the British children's comic Swift.) - ^ Extract appears in "A Date With Danger" (Octopus Books, 1984). Published for Marks and Spencer, a large British retail chain.
References
- ^ a b "Welch, Ronald, 1909–". Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCCN). Retrieved 24 May 2013.
- ^ a b (Carnegie Winner 1954) Archived 8 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ^ "The Road to Waterloo". Slightly Foxed. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
External links
