Gilbert Lawford Dalton was born in Kidderminster in the second quarter of 1903, the son of a journalist. After leaving school he joined the staff of the Coventry Evening Telegraph, but established a sideline writing serials for DC Thomson's story papers, Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur, and was successful enough that in 1936 he was able to give up journalism and write fiction full-time. He wrote Red Circle school stories and tales of Wilson, Alf Tupper, Limp Along Leslie and Braddock among many others.
He served in the Royal Observer Corps during the Second World War, and continued to write afterwards, also branching out into rugby union commentaries on BBC radio, then into scripting radio dramas for Children's Hour, but continued to write for the story papers, which paid better.
He lived in Leamington Spa after the war until 1958, when he moved to the south coast. He died in the first quarter of 1963, aged 59.
References[]
- Alan Clark, "A whiff of printers' ink... The story of Gilbert Dalton, master wordsmith of the D. C. Thomson story papers", The Sloperian #1, 2012