H.T.W. Bousfield (1891-1967)

Henry Thomas Wishart Bousfield
Professor of History, Army Officer, Author, Banker, Businessman
Born May 29, 1891, Sudbury, Derbyshire, England
Died Early 1965, Kensington, London, England

Henry Thomas Wishart Bousfield was born on May 29, 1891, in Sudbury, Derbyshire, England. He was the son of Reverend Stephen Bousfield, a rector at Shelton, Nottinghamshire, and Edith Margaret (Wishart) Bousfield, J.P., a social worker in Grantham, Lincolnshire, after her husband's death. She was the daughter of Captain G. Wishart, R.N., of London.

H.T.W. Bousfield attended Cambridge University. In 1913, at the age of twenty-two and describing himself as a professor of history, he traveled to India. Bousfield served in the British Indian Army, attaining the rank of captain. Attached to the 69th Punjabis, Captain Bousfield served on the Western Front during the Great War, including at the Battle of Loos (Sept. 25-Oct. 8, 1915), where he had a strange experience. You can read about it on line in an item entitled "A Mysterious Visitor" in The Occult Review, Vol. XXX (July-Dec. 1919), pages 64-65.

In 1922, Bousfield was affianced to Lady June Butler, a poetess. She ended up marrying another man, in 1923. Bousfield married instead Mary Adeline Guest, on November 26, 1929, at the Church of St. Margaret's, Westminster Abbey. She wore a bridal veil worn by her great-great-grandmother, Charlotte Lennox, Duchess of Richmond, who put on the renowned Duchess of Richmond's Ball the night before the Battle of Waterloo commenced. Bousfield was friends with the Hungarian artist Philip de László (1869-1937), who presented him with a portrait of his new bride as a wedding gift.

Once returned to his native land, Bousfield worked as a banker, also as chairman and managing director of Central Advertising Service, Ltd. From 1910 until at least 1944, he wrote stories and poems published in Britannia and Eve, Country Life, The Grand Magazine, Lloyd's Magazine, Nash's-Pall Mall Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, The Royal Magazine, The Sketch, The Windsor Magazine, and other British magazines. One of these stories was in "The Man Who . . ." category, "The Man Who Took Too Much Trouble" (The Windsor Magazine, Mar. 1935). "The God with Four Arms" (The Windsor Magazine, Apr. 1933) was described in contemporary newspaper items as "macabre." It became the lead story in a collection, The God with Four Arms and Other Stories, published in 1939 by Arthur Barker Ltd. A second collection, Vinegar--and Cream, was published in 1941 by John Murray. The phrase "Very Important Person" (or "Personage") made an early appearance in his story "The Only Girl Who Wasn't a Bore" (The Windsor Magazine, Feb. 1934). Bousfield had just one story in Weird Tales, "The Impossible Adventure," in the issue of November 1940. He also wrote the text for pamphlets or brochures, including RMS Queen Mary: The Ship of Beautiful Woods (Cunard-White Star, no date).

I don't have anything on H.T.W. Bousfield after 1944 except for the year and place of his death, 1965 (in the period January through March) in Kensington, London, England. He was seventy-three years old.

H.T.W. Bousfield's Story in Weird Tales
"The Impossible Adventure" (Nov. 1940)

Further Reading
Various minor sources in newspaper and on line.

H.T.W. Bousfield with his future bride, Mary Adeline Guest, from the Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales), November 26, 1929, page 10.

A real weird tale told by Bousfield and recounted in the Liverpool Daily Post, March 30, 1936, page 9.

Original text copyright 2022, 2023 Terence E. Hanley