Harry Collingwood

Born William Joseph Cosens Lancaster in Weymouth, Dorset, he used the pen name Harry Collingwood and became known for energetic boys' adventure fiction. He was trained for a naval life and later worked as a civil engineer, a background that fed directly into the practical detail of his stories.

Collingwood wrote more than forty novels, with ships, exploration, and danger at the center of most of them. Many of his books were aimed at younger readers and are remembered for their brisk pace, nautical settings, and fascination with seamanship.

Some older library records list him as "1851–1922," but widely used reference sources identify him as born on May 23, 1843, and died on June 10, 1922. No suitable verified portrait image was confirmed from the source page reviewed here, so none is included.