Reginald Berkeley

Reginald Cheyne Berkeley (18 August 1890 – 30 March 1935) was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom, and later a writer of stage and radio plays, then a screenwriter in Hollywood. He had trained as a lawyer. He died in Los Angeles from pneumonia after an operation.

His son Humphry Berkeley was a Conservative MP in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Berkeley was born in London to Humphry George Berkeley and Agnes Mary née Cheyne. He was educated privately and at Bedford Modern School. He later went to Fiji where his father was a prominent lawyer in Suva; then to Auckland, New Zealand, where he studied at Auckland University College and passed the Barristers Examination of the University of New Zealand. He was admitted to the Bar of Fiji and New Zealand in 1912, and to the Middle Temple (London) on 2 July 1919. He was a lieutenant in the 3rd (Auckland) Regiment of the territorials in New Zealand from 1911 to 1913.

Berkeley served in World War I as a captain in the Rifle Brigade. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. His citation reads: Postwar he joined the staff of the League of Nations Union in 1919 as Editor of Pamphlets then Director of Propaganda, and the League Secretariat in 1921, resigning when he entered Parliament.

Politician He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham Central at the 1922 general election, winning the seat with a majority of only 22 votes over the sitting Conservative MP Albert Atkey. His screenwriting credits include Dreyfus (1931), Cavalcade (1933), The World Moves On (1934), Carolina (1934) and Nurse Edith Cavell (1939). and The White Chateau was later described by the BBC as "one of the first plays specially written for broadcasting".

In February 1926 he withdrew permission for a radio broadcast of his play Mr. Abdulla, as he objected to cuts that the BBC intended to make to it, and those they had made to an earlier production, of The Quest of Elizabeth, a radio playlet about the death of a child which he wrote and which was broadcast in October 1925.

Berkeley also wrote at least one novel. He was residing at 606 North Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills.