James Lennox Kerr was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 socialist author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 noted for his children's stories written under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 of "Peter Dawlish". He lived in Paisley until 1915, joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve by claiming to be 18, then served on merchant ships until 1929. After spending some time in Australia and America (his first book, for adults, Back Door Guest, described life as a hobo in USA and Canada, and is full of social comment which was then controversial) he settled in Pimlico

Pimlico

Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster. Like Belgravia, to which it was built as a southern extension, Pimlico is known for its grand garden squares and impressive Regency architecture....

 in 1930, marrying Elizabeth "Mornie" Birch of Penwith, Cornwall (daughter of John "Lamorna" Birch the RA painter) in 1932. These details are in his autobiography (Kerr 1940). He wrote 32 books for children, most with a nautical theme and 23 books for adults, many commenting on working class life in Scotland, America and Australia. He served on minesweepers in World War II, assisted at Omaha beach, and was Mentioned In Despatches. As an author he used, in addition to his own name, the pseudonyms "Douglas Gavin" for adult books and "Peter Dawlish" for children's books after 1938 (Bigger, 2007).
Kerr was a self proclaimed socialist, but he was never a member of the Communist Party. He joined and then left the Labour Party. He is survived by a son whose reminiscences are used by Wormleighton (1995) and Bigger (2007).

As James Lennox Kerr

• Back Door Guest (1930)
• Ice(1931)
• Glenshiels (1932)
• Woman of Glenshiels (1935) - this novel is particularly noted for his portrayal of a conscientious objector
  Conscientious objector
  A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
  
   in the First World War who is pressured to enlist in the British Army and is killed in France.
• The Blackspit Smugglers – An adventure novel for boys (1935)
• The Eye of the Earth - a story of the arctic for boys (1936)
• The Eager Years: An Autobiography (1940)
• Wavy Navy : by some who served (1950) - about the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. It was edited by Kerr and David James, and included a foreword by Lord Cunningham of Hyndhope.
• Touching the Adventures - Of Merchantmen in the Second World War (1953) - edited by Kerr. It featured a foreword by John Masefield. Kerr uses all three names in this volume.
• The Great Storm: being the authentic story of the loss at sea of the Princess Victoria and other vessels early in 1953 (1954)
• The R.N.V.R.: A Record of Achievement (1957) - another book about the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. This time it was written by Kerr and Wilfred Granville. The book began with a foreword by G. Thistleton-Smith.
• Wilfred Grenfell, His Life and Work (1959) - a biography of Sir Wilfred Grenfell
  Wilfred Grenfell
  Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, KCMG was a medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador.He was born at Parkgate, Wirral, England, the son of Algernon Grenfell, headmaster of Mostyn House School, and Jane Georgiana Hutchison and married Anne Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan of Chicago, Illinois, in...
  
  

As Peter Dawlish

• Captain Peg-Leg's War, and Peg Leg and the Fur Pirates (1939) - Kerr’s first children’s books as Peter Dawlish, for Oxford University Press.
• Peg-Leg Sweeps the Sea, and Peg-Leg and the Invaders (1940)
• The First Tripper (1947) - a lad goes to sea on his first trip

The “Dauntless” Series describes the adventures of a group of five Cornish boys

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

and their sailboat, an ex-French crabber. These adventures were published between 1947 and 1960. Books in the series include:

• Dauntless Finds Her Crew (1947)
• Dauntless Sails Again (1948)
• Dauntless and the Mary Baines (1949)
• Dauntless Takes Recruits (1950)
• Dauntless Sails In (1952)
• Dauntless in Danger (1954)
• Sailors All! (1957)
• Dauntless Goes Home (1960)

Other children’s books using the Peter Dawlish pseudonym include:

• The Bagodia Episode (1953), an adventure story in Australia
• Young Drake of Devon (1954)
• He Went with Drake (1955)
• Way for a Sailor (1955)
• North Sea Adventure (1956)
• Martin Frobisher (1956)
• Aztec Gold (1958)
• The Race for Gowrie Bay (1959) about sealing
• The Boy Jacko (1962)
• The Seas of Britain (1963)- non-fiction
• The Royal Navy (1963) - non-fiction.
• Johnno, the Deep-Sea Diver, the Life Story of Diver Johnson as told to Peter Dawlish by John Johnstone (1960) .
• Merchant Navy (1966)- non-fiction.

He also wrote adult novels as Gavin Douglas.

• 1935 Rough Passage Collins = The Tall Man, New York G P Putnam's Sons 1936;
• 1936 The Obstinate Captain Samson Collins /New York G P Putnam's Sons 1937;
• 1937 Captain Samson AB Collins;
• 1938 The Search for the Blue Sedan Collins;
• 1948 A Tale of Pimlico Robert Hale;
• 1949 The Scuffler Robert Hale;
• 1949 Seamanship for Passengers John Lehman, London;
• 1951 The Struggle Robert Hale.