Harold Hannyngton Child

Harold Hannyngton Child (20 June 1869 – 8 November 1945) was an English journalist, critic and scholar. After a short spell as an actor he turned to writing. He was instrumental in founding The Times Literary Supplement in 1902, and contributed a large number of theatre reviews and other articles to The Times.

He wrote the libretto for Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera Hugh the Drover, and was a major contributor to the Cambridge History of English Literature, covering a wide range of topics ranging from the Elizabethan theatre to Henry Fielding, William Cowper and Jane Austen.

Life and career Early years Harold Child was born in Gloucester on 20 June 1869, the second son of Thomas Hannyngton Irving Child – a student at Gloucester Theological College, later, curate of St James's church Gloucester and from 1875 rector of Stratton, Gloucestershire – and his wife, Florence, daughter of Thomas Crossman, solicitor, of Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Child was educated at Winchester College from where he won a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford.

After graduating in 1892 with a second class degree in , Child joined a firm of solicitors in Thornbury, where he enjoyed rural pursuits: "there were horses to ride, and lawn tennis, and picnics, and skating at Tolworth, and the two hundred acres of rough shooting", Child was advised "to go into the provinces and get Experience". He later published a light-hearted account of his experiences in Poor Player (1939). Another paper, The Morning Leader, also published his fiction as well as his opinion pieces on such topics as theatrical libels. His first book was a novel, Phil of the Heath, which The Daily Telegraph described as "a sensational story of strong and well-sustained interest".

From 1902 to 1905 Child was secretary of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Concurrently, in association with his old friend Bruce Richmond, he played a key role in the inception and development of The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) from 1902. The composer wrote to Child: The composer continued to adjust the libretto throughout his life.

TLS and The Times Child became a mainstay of the TLS and gradually his contributions to the parent newspaper increased. For many years he was deputy to A. B. Walkley as The Times's theatre critic – Walkley told him that his experience as an actor enabled him to give the acting its due place in his dramatic criticism – and from 1912 to 1920 he was also theatre critic for The Observer.

The quality of Child's reviews in the TLS led to his being invited to contribute chapters to the Cambridge History of English Literature. His chapters covered a wide range of subjects from "Secular influences on the early English drama" and "The Elizabethan Theatre" to Henry Fielding, William Cowper, Tobias Smollett, George Crabbe and Jane Austen. Child contributed more chapters to the history than any other writer apart from George Saintsbury.

The list of books published by Child is not long: in addition to his early novel there are guidebooks to Shakespeare's country and the Channel Islands; there are translations of Aucassin and Nicolette, Henri Brémond's Sir Thomas More and Louis Dimier's French Painting in the XVI Century. He also published a small book of love poems, The Yellow Rock, as well as his theatrical memoir, A Poor Player.

Later years Child's first wife had died in 1918 after years of ill health. In 1934 he married Helen Mary Wilkinson, daughter of Professor Spenser Wilkinson. In his later years Child's health deteriorated: asthma became an increasing problem. He died at his home in Littlehampton, Sussex, on 8 November 1945, aged 76. The Times obituarist said of him: