Great War Theatre

Allardyce Nicoll, 'English Drama 1900-1930', identifies Anthony P. Wharton as Alister McAllister, who also used the pseudonym Lynn Brock, and lists several plays by Wharton between 1907 and 1929 (but none under those other names). According to https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0923580/bio?ref_=nm_sa_1, Wharton was born Anthony McAllister in Ireland in 1877. Those are also his birth name and date and country of birth according to Who’s Who In The Theatre (fourth edition, 1922) which also records that he was educated at University College, Dublin, gaining a scholarship in classics in 1896 and graduating B.A. first in Ancient Classics in 1899; and that he was the author of Irene Wycherley (1907), A Nocturne (1908), At The Barn (1912), 13 Simon Street (1913) and The Riddle (1916, with Morley Roberts). The Irish Independent, 2 June 1916, announcing the performance of ‘The Riddle’ by Anthony Wharton and Morley Roberts, noted that ‘“Anthony Wharton” will be recognised as the nom-de-theatre of a university professor in Dublin'. The Freeman’s Journal, 5 June 1916, referred to Antony Wharton as a 'young Dublin playwright'. According to the crime fiction database http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930130/Brock,Lynn, ‘[Lynn Brock's] real name was Alister McAllister. He served in British Intelligence while a chief clerk at the National University of Ireland. This was probably before and during the Irish Uprising (1916-1921). He also wrote a few novels and plays under the name of Anthony Wharton. His famous detective was Colonel Warwick Gore’. The same website adds, 'Lynn Brock (1877-1943) was the pseudonym of Alister McAllister], an Irish writer [who] was born in Dublin and educated at the National University of Ireland, where he became Chief Clerk. He served in British Intelligence and in the machine gun corps during WW1'. Wharton's last book may have been ‘The Stoat’, published under the name Lynn Brock (identified as Alister MacAllister in the British Library’s catalogue) in 1940 (as noted in the Liverpool Daily Post, 13 September 1940). As regards Wharton's war service: the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 10 July 1915, named ‘“Anthony Wharton,” who is really Mr. Alister McAllister’, John Masefield and Henry James as authors who were serving with the Red Cross. The Irish Independent, 2 June 1916, reported that Wharton 'has been with the army in France, and on two occasions has been sent home wounded’. And the Irish Independent, 29 June 1916, published a photograph of ‘Mr. “Anthony Wharton” who 'early in the war ... joined the Motor Machine Gun Service, has been twice wounded, and is at present in a Dublin Hospital’.

Gender: Male

Served in the armed forces? Yes

Scripts associated with Anthony P. Wharton

Script Role
A Guardian Angel Author
The Riddle Author