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Early years
Sherriff was born in Hampton Wick, Middlesex, the only child of Herbert Hankin Sherriff, insurance clerk, and Constance Winder, daughter of Charles Winder, of Iver, Buckinghamshire. Educated at Kingston Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames, he worked in an insurance office as a clerk (from 1914) and as an insurance adjuster (1918 to 1928) at Sun Insurance Company, London. Sherriff served (1915 to 1918) as a captain in the 9th East Surrey Regiment in World War I, serving at Vimy and Loos. He was severely wounded at Passchendaele near Ypres in 1917. He was decorated with an MC during the war.

Career
He first wrote a play to help Kingston Rowing Club raise money to buy a new boat. His seventh play, Journey's End, was written in 1928 and published in 1929 and was based on his experiences in the war. It was performed twice, first on 9 December 1928, by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Apollo Theatre, directed by James Whale and with the 21 year old Laurence Olivier in the lead role. In the audience was Maurice Browne who produced it at the Savoy Theatre where it was performed for two years from 1929.

Novel

Sherriff also wrote prose. His 1939 novel, The Hopkins Manuscript is a Wells-influenced post-apocalyptic story about an earth devastated because of a collision with the Moon. Its sober language and realistic depiction of a man coming to terms with a ruined England is said to have been an influence on later science fiction authors such as John Wyndham and Brian Aldiss.

Personal life
Sherriff studied at New College, Oxford from 1931 to 1934. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Society of Antiquaries.

[edit] Award nominations
Sherriff was nominated along with Eric Maschwitz and Claudine West for an Academy award for writing an adapted screenplay for Goodbye, Mr. Chips which was released in 1939. His 1955 screenplays, The Dam Busters and The Night My Number Came Up were nominated for best British screenplay BAFTA awards.

Plays
1922: The Woods of Meadowside
1923: Profit and Loss
1924: Cornlow-in-the-Downs
1926: Mr. Bridie's Finger
1928: Journey's End
1930: Badger's Green
1933: Windfall
1934: Two Hearts Doubled
1936: St. Helena
1948: Miss Mabel
1949: Dark Evening
1950: Home at Seven
1952: The Kite
1953: The White Carnation
1955: The Long Sunset
1957: The Telescope

Filmography
1933: The Invisible Man
1933: Goodbye, Mr. Chips
19xx: One More River
1935: The Four Feathers
1937: The Road Back
1941: Lady Hamilton
1942: This Above All
1945: Odd Man Out
1948: Quartet
1950: No Highway
1955: The Dam Busters
1955: The Night My Number Came Up
1955: Cards with Uncle Tom (TV)
1963: The Ogburn Story (TV)