Major General John Hay Beith, CBE (17 April 1876 – 22 September 1952), was a British schoolmaster and soldier, but he is best remembered as a novelist, playwright, essayist and historian who wrote under the pen name Ian Hay.After reading Classics at Cambridge, Beith became a schoolmaster. In 1907 he published a novel, Pip; its success and that of several more novels enabled him to give up teaching in 1912 to be a full-time author. During the First World War, Beith served as an officer in the army in France. His good-humoured account of army life, The First Hundred Thousand, published in 1915, was a best-seller. On the strength of this, he was sent to work in the information section of the British War Mission in Washington, D.C.After the war Beith's novels did not achieve the popularity of his earlier work, but he made a considerable career as a dramatist, writing light comedies, often in collaboration with other authors including P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. During the Second World War Beith served as Director of Public Relations at the War Office, retiring in 1941 shortly before his 65th birthday.Among Beith's later works were several war histories, which were not as well received as his comic fiction and plays. His one serious play, Hattie Stowe (1947), was politely reviewed but had a short run. In the same year he co-wrote a comedy, Off the Record, which ran for more than 700 performances.
Was chairman of the Society of Authors from 1942 until his death in 1952.
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He joined Durham School in 1902 as junior science master, and also coached the rugby and boating crews. Durham featured in one of his best books 'The Housemaster' (1938), which includes the famous differentiation between 'funny peculiar' and 'funny ha-ha'.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Sikke'n familie
1963
play
The Sign of Zorro
1958
screenplay - uncredited
Girls at Sea
1958
play
BBC Sunday-Night Theatre
1958
TV Series play - 1 episode
Saturday Playhouse
1958
TV Series play "Off the Record" - 1 episode
The Ship Was Loaded
1957
based on the stage play "Off the Record"
The Fourpenny Box
1956
TV Movie play
Orders Are Orders
1955
play
Off the Record
1950
TV Movie play
Housemaster
1949
TV Movie
Tilly of Bloomsbury
1948
TV Movie play
The Middle Watch
1948
TV Movie play
The Middle Watch
1946
TV Movie play
Tilly of Bloomsbury
1940
play
The Middle Watch
1940
play
Mad Men of Europe
1940
Little Ladyship
1939
TV Movie English version - English version
Nobody Home
1938
writer
Housemaster
1938
novel "The Housemaster" - uncredited / play "Bachelor Born"