Sir H. H. (Henry Howarth) Bashford

Born in London in 1880, Sir Henry Howarth Bashford trained as a physician and went on to have a notable public medical career, including service as Chief Medical Officer to the British Post Office and Honorary Physician to King George VI. He was educated at Bedford Modern School and studied through the University of London.

Alongside medicine, he built a second life as a writer. He published novels, essays, poetry, and memoir-like works, but he is most widely remembered for Augustus Carp, Esq., by Himself, the 1924 satirical novel first published anonymously. Its mock-serious voice and gentle cruelty toward self-righteousness have helped it stay in print long after many of his other books faded from view.

Bashford died in 1961 in Wiltshire. What makes him memorable now is the unusual combination of authority and mischief: he was an establishment doctor who also knew exactly how to laugh at pomposity.