Harry Collingwood was the pseudonym of William Joseph Cosens Lancaster (23 May 184310 June 1922), a British civil engineer and novelist who wrote over 40 boys' adventure books, almost all of them in a nautical setting.
Early life
Collingwood was the eldest son of master mariner Captain William Lancaster (1813(18611871)) and Anne, née Cosens (c. 18209 October 1898). His birth certificate shows that he was born in Weymouth, Dorset on 23 May 1843 at 9:30am at Concord Place. The Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography notes that most references, except his birth certificate, give his date of birth as 1851. His application for Associate Membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers gives his birth date as 23 May 1846.
Collingwood was the first of three children for the couple. He was eight when his sister Ada Louise (c. 18528 January 1929) was born and 12 when his sister Sarah Anne (1 June 185327 December 1941) was born. Both women were shown as drapers assistants in the 1871 census. By then Collingwood's father had died, and his mother continued to live with her daughters until her death. Ada never married and lived with her sister after leaving the paternal home. Sarah Anne married Mathew Smellie in St Michaels, Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire on 30 June 1880. The couple had one child, Harold Ernest Smellie (11 April 188130 April 1961). Harold was the nephew who registered Collingwood's death in 1922. Collingwood's mother died at his home in Norwood on 9 October 1898, with her daughter Ada Louise as the executrix of her effects of £1,308 11s 11d. When Ada Louise died on 8 January 1929, her widowed sister Sarah Ann (with whom she was living) was the executrix for her effects of £1,907 16s 8d. Harold was the executor for the effects (£4,574, 15s 1d) of his mother Sarah Ann when she died on 27 December 1942.
Most sources state that he attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and distinguished himself there by carrying off many prizes. However, this college closed in 1837 , and when it reopened it was only for those who had passed the exam for lieutenant. Kirk states that Collingwood attended the Royal Naval School, which was at New Cross, near Greenwich. This school had over 210 boys destined for careers at sea on the rolls by 1865 and trained officers and men for both the Royal Navy and Merchant Marine. In Collingwood's first book The Secret of the Sands the hero, called Harry Collingwood, was educated at the Royal Naval School at Greenwich.
Collingwood joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman at 15. However, his severe near-sightedness forced him to abandon his chosen career. Kitzen states that Collingwood traveled widely in both his short naval and much longer civilian career. Kirk states that it was during his civilian career that Collingwood travelled widely.
Work as an engineer
In September 1860, at age 17, he began working as a pupil in the architectural office of G R Crickmay RIBA in Dorset. That architectural practice continues today under the name of John Stark and Crickmay. He continued in Dorset until March 1864 and then moved to Durban in South Africa. He worked there in a range of posts until the end of 1870, by which time he was the Government Engineer and Surveyor for the Port District of Natal.
He returned to the UK in 1871 and worked on an eight-mile section of the Devon to London Railway for two years (the section of the London and South Western Railway from Okehampton to Lydford was under construction at this time). He continued in the UK, working on a range of projects including harbour works in the Isle of Man, as well as work at Burntisland on the Firth of Forth, where he lived in 1880, while advertising in Coleraine in Northern Ireland, for accommodation for himself, his wife, and infant son. In 1888 he spent a year on the island of Trinidad, surveying for a deep-water port and associated railway. He also travelled to the Baltic, Mediterranean, and the East Indies. His wide travels provided accurate backgrounds for many of his works.
Returned to England, and now living in Norwood, London, Collingwood applied for associate membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 31 July 1889 and was elected on 3 December 1889. Associated membership is the grade of membership open to engineers who are not academically qualified Civil Engineers, but have learned engineering by another route.
