James Wentworth Day

James Wentworth Day (April 21, 1899 – January 5, 1983) was a British writer and occasional broadcaster, firmly of the Agrarian Right school and essentially a High Tory. He lived for most of his life in East Anglia, an area which would always be his first love; he had a particular interest in wildfowling, and at one stage owned Adventurers' Fen, a piece of marshland in Cambridgeshire. He was also a ghost hunter, and wrote several books about this interest. He is possibly most famous for his journey around the farms of East Anglia on horseback during World War II, as detailed in his book "Farming Adventure" (later reprinted under the title "Wartime Ride"), while for many years he was closely associated with the "East Anglian" magazine.

Early life

Born in Exning, Suffolk he was educated at Newton College, Newton Abbot and Cambridge before seeing active service in World War I. He became a journalist after his war service, notably on the Express newspapers and Country Life (as well as other sporting papers). [Robert Innes-Smith, "James Wentworth Day", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry] He also became personal assistant to Lucy, Lady Houston and for a time shared some of her extreme ideas in supporting Benito Mussolini, although he was highly suspicious of Adolf Hitler. [Innes-Smith, op cit] He became a propaganda adviser to the Eyptian government in 1938 and spent the Second World War as a correspondent in France and as Near East correspondent of the BBC until he was invalided in 1943. [Innes-Smith, op cit]

Post-war activity

In 1950 and 1951 he was an unsuccessful Conservative candidate for the constituency of Hornchurch, now in Greater London but then in Essex, and often spoke on behalf of the Tory cause at elections. He worked for a number of British newspapers, held senior positions at "The Field" and "Country Life", and was both owner and editor of the "Saturday Review".

Wentworth Day had a confrontation with Labour chairman Harold Laski in 1945, putting questions to him at a meeting in Newark which led to Laski seemingly endorsing socialism through violent revolution. [Innes-Smith, op cit] As such he was an important witness in the Laski libel action of 1946.

Television career

Wentworth Day briefly achieved minor fame through television in 1957 and 1958, when he appeared as the resident reactionary "rent-a-quote" (to use a term coined more recently) in Daniel Farson's Associated-Rediffusion series, most famously "Out of Step" and "People in Trouble". [Robin Carmody, [http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/tvheroes/daniel_farson.php Daniel Farson] ] Farson made it clear that he did not agree with the sentiments, which were often perceived as racist and xenophobic even in the 1950s (in the "People in Trouble" programme on mixed marriages Wentworth Day referred to "coffee-coloured little imps" and claimed that black people must be "inferior" because "a couple of generations ago they were eating each other"), but he usually chuckled along with them and ended them with a remark along the lines of "I completely disagree with you, but at least you say what you really feel".

However, Wentworth Day was soon dropped from Farson's programmes after he claimed, while contributing to a programme on transvestism, that all homosexuals should be hanged. Farson, himself a homosexual, was afraid Wentworth Day would land him in prison and insisted that the programme on transvestism should be scrapped, theoretically because the Independent Television Authority would ban it anyway. [Carmody, op cit]

Despite his increasingly outmoded views on racial matters, Wentworth Day continued to write until shortly before his death, which came very soon after two Daniel Farson programmes in which he expressed his opinions had been repeated on the fledgling Channel 4 (clips of Wentworth Day's comments were later shown in Victor Lewis-Smith's "Buygones" strand in "Club X" and "TV Offal"). Wentworth Day also held a set of views in support of traditional farming methods and in opposition to pesticides; these were expressed in his 1957 book "Poison On The Land".

Personal life

In his early years Wentworth Day had several unsuccessful engagements as well as two failed marriages to Helen Alexia Gardom (1925-1934) and Nerina Shute (1936-1943). He married New Zealander Marion McLean in 1943 and the couple had one daughter together, remaining married until his death. [Innes-Smith, op cit]

He died in Ingatestone, Essex aged 83. [Innes-Smith, op cit]

Books

Note: the list below is probably incomplete and some of the dates may be inaccurate, although accuracy has been strived for at all times.

* Farming Adventure: A Thousand Miles Through England On A Horse (date unknown)
* The Modern Fowler (date unknown)
* King George V as a Sportsman (date unknown)
* The Life of Sir Henry Segrave (date unknown)
* Harvest Adventure (date unknown)
* Sport in Egypt (date unknown)
* Gamblers' Gallery (date unknown)
* Wild Wings and Some Footsteps (1948)
* Marshland Adventure (1950)
* Broadland Adventure (1951)
* The New Yeomen of England (1952)
* The Modern Shooter (1952)
* Norwich and the Broads (1953)
* A History of the Fens (1954)
* The Wisest Dogs in the World: Some Account of the Longshaw Sheepdog Trials Association (1954)
* Here Are Ghosts And Witches (1954)
* They Walk The Wild Places (1956)
* Poison On The Land: The War On Wild Life, And Some Remedies (1957)
* The Angler's Pocket Book (1957)
* The Dog Lover's Pocket Book (1957)
* A Ghost Hunter's Game Book (1958)
* British Animals of the Wild Places (1960)
* British Birds of the Wild Places (1961)
* HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent: The First Authentic Life Story (1962)
* Portrait of the Broads (1967)
* The Queen Mother's Family Story (1967)
* In Search of Ghosts (1969)
* History of the Fens (1970)
* Rum Owd Boys (1974)
* Norwich Through The Ages (1976)
* King's Lynn and Sandringham Through The Ages (1977)
* Garland of Hops (1978)
* The James Wentworth Day Book of Essex (1979)

Quote

"I confess it. I do not like modern furniture or much of modern architecture, less or none of modern art and little of modern literature. I am, of course, an antediluvian, a reactionary, an out-of-date or, as I prefer it, a rural romanticist." [James Wentworth Day, "Wild Wings and Some Footsteps", 1948.]

References