Vernon Scannell

Born John Vernon Bain, Vernon Scannell left school at 14 and was largely self-educated. He was already a published poet before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1940, Bain and his brother joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and served in North Africa and Normandy. After the war, Scannell supported himself as a boxer and teacher before his novels and poetry began to gain recognition.

In 1961, Scannell was awarded the Heinemann Award for Literature, and in 1974, the Cholmondeley Poetry Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1960. In 1981, he was granted a civil list pension in recognition of his services to literature.