Site icon The Thrilling Detective Web Site

Colwyn Dane

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Rupert Hall
Pseudonym of Edward Reginald Home-Gall
Authors include Mark Grimshaw (house pseudonym; used by Ernest McKeag, Harry Belfield)

“Gosh, that was worth seeing, guv’nor!” exclaimed Slick Chester.

Crikey! Cut from the same cloth as Sexton Blake but aimed at a younger audience, COLWYN DANE was a private detective/adventurer, the kind of hero so beloved of the Brits throughout the close of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. He appeared in an astonishing number of adventures; over a thousand were published from 1928 until 1955 in The Champion, a weekly anthology of stories aimed at young boys, appearing alongside the Champion‘s other popular characters, such as Rockfist Rogan (a RAF pilot and boxer), Ginger Nutt (“the boy who took the biscuit”), Johnny Fleetfoot (“the Redskin Winger”) and Hurry Scurry (“The Demon Racer”). Granted, they stories are mostly only three pages long, with a few strung together as serials, but still… that’s an incredible 27-year run.

Unlike Blake, however, Colwyn’s job description remained consistent — he was always a “private investigator” with offices on Benton Street W. in London, although he was also occasionally referred to as an “inquiry agent,” an “adventurer for hire” and simply as “detective.” He took on all sorts of cases — he could be pursuing a murderer through the fog-bound streets of Whitechapel, taking on the Yellow Peril (“Those bloody blighters!”), Chicago mobsters, or investigating the deaths of a couple African explorers, apparently mauled to death by a lion in Essex. And that was another significant difference between Colwyn and Sexton–while Blake gallivanted all over the globe on his cases, Dane was pretty much a homebody, rarely venturing from the United Kingdom.

But through thick and thin, Colywn could rely on his loyal (and perpetually grinning) young assistant, Slick Chester, who referred to Colwyn as “Guv’nor.” In fact, in the original stories (credited to Rupert Hall, a pen-name of Edward R. Home-Gall), Slick was the star of the show, with Dane simply part of the supporting cast. Eventually Colwyn, however, took over the leading role, though Slick of course still appeared, serving not just as his able-bodied assistant but his chauffeur as well, driving the Chief’s “super sports-car.”

Later stories were credited to Mark Grimshaw, a house pseudonym used by several writers. Ernest Lionel MacKeag, who went on to create hard-boiled newspaperman turned private eye Bill Truscott, alone wrote over 300 Dane stories before the war, and almost all those from 1939 until the paper was shut down. And of course Colwyn also appeared in the the Champion’s companion publications, Champion Annual and Champion Library.

Besides creating Colwyn, Edward R. Home-Gall was a veteran AP scriptwriter.

STORIES (Incomplete)

COLLECTIONS

RELATED LINKS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
Exit mobile version