Guy du Maurier

Guy Louis Busson du Maurier DSO (18 May 1865, London, England – 9 Mar 1915, Kemmel, Flanders, Belgium) was an English army officer and playwright. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and the actor Gerald du Maurier. He was educated at Marlborough and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and in 1885 became an officer in the Royal Fusiliers.[1][2][3] He served in the Second Boer War, where he commanded a mounted infantry regiment,[4] earning the Distinguished Service Order in 1902.[5]

He achieved notoriety in 1909 as the author of the play An Englishman's Home.[6][7][8] which tells the story of the Brown family under invasion by an unnamed foreign power, widely assumed to represent Germany.[9] When the play was staged in Germany, it caused an outrage, as the German press saw clear references to their Homeland. In 1940 it was made into a propaganda film, more pointedly titled "Mad Men of Europe".[10]

At the death of his sister Sylvia, and as requested in her will, he became co-guardian to the Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired Peter Pan.[11] He served for the last time in World War I, being killed in action in Flanders in 1915.[12] J. M. Barrie wrote to Guy's nephew George Llewelyn Davies to inform him of the death; by the time Barrie received his response, George himself had been killed.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Marlborough College 1905
  2. ↑ Dudgeon 2008, p.106
  3. ↑ "No. 25439". The London Gazette. 6 February 1885. p. 521.
  4. ↑ Dunbar 1970, p.161
  5. ↑ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6900.
  6. ↑ Birkin 2003, p.172
  7. ↑ https://archive.org/details/englishmanshomep00dumauoft
  8. ↑ http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?th-10827
  9. ↑ Cooper 2012, Chapter 2
  10. ↑ Rosslyn Park Memorial Project: Guy Louis Busson du Maurier DSO
  11. ↑ Birkin 2003, p.189
  12. ↑ Dudgeon 2008, p.222
  13. ↑ Dunbar 1970, pp.273-274

References

  • Birkin, Andrew (2003). J M Barrie and the Lost boys. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09822-7.
  • Cooper, Stephen (2012). The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players. The History Press. ISBN 978-0752479354.
  • Dudgeon, Piers (2008). Captivated: J.M. Barrie, the du Mauriers and the dark side of Neverland. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-8216-8.
  • Dunbar, Janet (1970). J. M. Barrie: The Man Behind the Image. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  • Marlborough College (1905). Marlborough College Register from 1843 to 1904 Inclusive. p. 348. OCLC 18234600.
  • "Player Portraits M-Z". Rosslyn Park Memorial Project. Archived from the original on 11 August 2013.
  • "Rosslyn Park Remembers" (PDF). Parknews. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2014.
  • "Du Maurier, Guy Louis Busson". Commonwealth War Graves Commission.



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